The World We Live In
by Opticz
Summary: When Lee and Bud Everett return home from vacationing in the mountains they find their home not what it used to be. Together with his brother Bud, Lee Everett will have to find a way to survive with a group of people each with their own problems and look after a little girl who longs for her parents. Eventual CarLee and possibly Bud/Lilly
1. Chapter 1

The Walking Dead: The World We Live In

Prologue

* * *

"Hey Lee, wake up man, we're almost home," Lee Everett's brother, Bud said slightly nudging Lee's shoulder.

Lee groggily opened his dark brown eyes only to be blinded by the sun shining in face, "Yeah, I should've put the sun visor down for you huh?" Bud asked sarcastically.

Lee grunted but sat up in the passenger's seat of his brother's car. "That would've been an excellent idea."

Lee could see Bud grinning in his peripheral vision, "What time is it?"

"Almost six thirty," Bud said looking at a frowning Lee, "What vacation didn't last long enough for you?"

Lee shook his head watching as a wailing police cruiser shot past them and towards the city of Atlanta, Lee also noticed there was a traffic jam heading out of Atlanta and almost no cars entering. As Bud pulled into the turnoff off of the interstate and to Macon Lee spoke, "Not really, I'm not too excited to grade my student's research papers."

"You should've stuck around at the pharmacy, you know it's a family business," Bud said keeping his eyes on the road and avoiding Lee's questioning stare.

"You know I love history, Bud. And I loved working at the pharmacy but-"

"But you wanted to teach history, that's cool. It would've been nice if you stuck around is all," Bud said placing his left hand on the wheel and using his right to pay his older brother's shoulder.

Lee nodded, "Yeah, it's going to be nice to see mom and dad again."

"Oh I bet, mom wouldn't stop saying how much she wanted to see her 'baby boy'," Bud gestured with his right hand, "I had to listen to her for fifteen minutes on the phone talking about how much she and dad had wanted to see you."

Lee laughed, "We never should have convinced her to get a cell phone huh?"

"I swear, Lee, that woman is on that phone all day now," Bud said shaking his head.

Bud looked at Lee and began to speak again, "Yeah she's been bothering dad too about the whole cell phone thing and-"

Lee looked away from his brother and set his sights on the road. Lee blinked several times as his brother was unknowingly sending the car barreling into a man who was wandering on the road.

"Watch out!" Lee shouted to Bud.

Everything seemed to have happened so fast, the car struck the man allowing Bud to lose control and send the car veering into a stalled vehicle on the side of the road.

"Shit Lee, are you okay?" Bud asked gesturing to Lee's forehead which was now sported an oozing laceration.

Lee's eyes fluttered open and he could now see double, "I think so, shit. We have to check on those people."

Lee shook his head and became dizzy. The cut that lay above his right eye oozed blood around his eyebrow and down to his eye. Lee, using two fingers, brushed the blood away from his eyes and smeared it on his jeans.

Bud nodded with his hands still firmly planted on the black steering wheel, "Okay, I'll go check on the guy in the car. You get the one on the road."

Lee nodded, pulling his phone out to call 911 as he approached the unmoving man. Lee was baffled as he had no cell reception, they were close to Macon, he should've gotten a signal being this close. He shook his head putting his phone on the road as he knelt down next to the man.

Lee flipped the man who looked very pale over onto his back, Lee jumped back in alarm as the man had no jaw and was bleeding severely from the injury. The man's eyes were glossed over and a pale shade of blue, he hissed at Lee and began to stand up.

Lee stumbled backwards in panic and tripped over his own feet. He fell on his hind and stared up at the man who was stumbling towards Lee, hair disheveled and skin peeling he growled hungrily. The zombified life form looked up as footsteps could be heard racing down the asphalt road, before Lee could react more blood was splattered onto him.

The corpse of the former human. Being collapsed to the ground while severely bleeding from its temple. Bud stood behind the fallen creature breathing heavily.

Lee looked up in horror at his younger brother's bloodied hands, "What the fuck was that?"

Bud swallowed dropping his pocket knife to the ground and collapsed to his knees burying his face in his hands, "The news reports- emergency broadcasts," Bud took a deep, shaky breath, "It's all gone to shit, Lee."

Bud looked at his older brother, "Mom, dad. What if they-"

Lee crawled over to his younger brother and embraced him, "Everything is going to be ok, I promise," Lee said, much like he used to console his brother when they were younger and their parents argued.

Lee rubbed his brothers back and released him, "Let's just check the car, ok? See if it can still run, sound good?" Lee asked fighting his fear to stay strong for his brother.

Bud nodded quickly, "Yeah- Yeah sure, that sounds good, yeah," he said standing up and walking with Lee to the black car numbly.

Lee climbed into the drivers seat and turned the key, the car whined and the engine sputtered before finally giving out. Lee slammed his hand against the wheel and got out, "Son of a bitch!"

Bud, still in a daze looked at Lee crookedly, "We need to get into Macon."

"I know, we need to find someone and see what exactly is going on," Lee said agreeing with his brother.

Lee walked to the trunk of the car hearing the wailing of other zombies far off, "For now " he pulled out their hiking bags and began filling it up with basic supplies, "We need to go find some place to stay for the night, if everything is like the emergency broadcasts said, then there may not be too many people around. Chances are they all up and ran to the hills."

"That's what I would've done," Bud said nodding and taking the backpack Lee handed to him.

Lee cleaned the wound on his forehead and put a bandage on it before rolling up the sleeves of his blue button up shirt, "Let's just keep going straight down this road, you remember that neighborhood up ahead?"

"Yeah, I remember that place. One of our regulars lives down there, name was Ed I think," Bud said shrugging.

Lee too a few steps and looked as far as he could see down the narrow road, the sun was setting now and it wouldn't be too long before it was dark. They might have another twenty, maybe thirty minutes left of sunlight. Bud stood next to Lee, looking down the road he sighed.

Lee put his hand on his brother's shoulder, "We'll be fine, I promise you. I'm going to keep you safe, I promise," Lee said to Bud who returned his words with a sad smile.

Lee closed his eyes and took a breath pushing back his emotions to attempt to stay strong, Lee could tell now, it was going to be a long journey.

**AN:**

**Hello people of the internet! I've been wanting to write this story for a long time now and I've finally got around to it, I hope you like this introductory chapter even though it's short. And don't worry, I won't be throwing in Lee's brother into this story and not letting him have an impact, I don't want that for this story. I want the whole dynamic to change, I want Bud to be able to twist TellTale's original story into something different. But we'll just have to see how that goes in Chapter 1: Clementine and so on. See you guys later and feel free to let me know what you think and leave suggestions for what you would want to see in this story.**


	2. Chapter 2

**The Walking Dead: The World We Live In**

**Chapter One: Clementine**

* * *

Bud and Lee walked down the vacant asphalt road looking around for a nice, deserted place to stay the night. The two reached the tree line and sighed looking at the house to their left.

"This is as good as any, I guess," Lee said gesturing for Bud to follow him.

The two circled the house, it was nice and quiet looking. There was a wooden fence blocking the forest so they wouldn't have any surprise visitors overnight, if of course, the zombies couldn't climb. There were empty cars lining the front yard further hindering the path of any zombie to come to them.

"How about we go through the back? We probably won't make as much noise with that door," Bud said beginning to walk to the back of the house.

"Yeah, sure," Lee responded following his brother while making sure to keep track of his surroundings.

Lee looked up at the tree house once more wondering if anyone was still up there.

"It's open," Bud said to Lee who had moved under the tree house.

Lee shook a piece of wood that was nailed I the trunk which served as a rung of the ladder, "I'm coming, search the place, but be careful."

Bud rolled his dark brown eyes and walked into the house.

The wooden tree house offered a creek high above, Lee could see the wooden flap of the window close. His heart began to beat quickly now, "Anyone up there?" he called softly.

No answer, he could hear gunshots coming from the forest behind the fence. Likely rifles, Lee thought. Swallowing his fear Lee looked up at the tree house once more, "Hey! I'm coming up, okay? Don't shoot."

Still no answer, Lee shook his head. He climbed up feeling his backpack weighing down on his back. Reaching the small observation platform Lee looked over at the forest, he knew the interstate where Lee and Bud drove in was past the seemingly unending line of trees.

Lee turned to the crooked door of the tree house and slightly pushed the door open. It was a fairly large tree house, it had enough room to fit a small wooden table and small pink chests which undoubtedly contained toys and other things children used. Huddled in the far right corner was a little girl who clutched a hammer and looked up at Lee in fear.

"Hey," Lee said awkwardly waving at the little girl.

She squirmed but looked up at the man, "Hi," the little girl replied meekly.

Lee got down on one knee a few feet from the girl, "What's your name?"

"Clementine," the girl replied loosening her grip on her hammer.

"That's a nice name, my name is Lee," Lee said smiling and extending his hand.

Clementine placed her small hand into his large one and shook.

"Where are your parents Clementine?" Lee asked sitting down against the wall next to Clementine.

She twisted and looked at him with her inquisitive light brown eyes, "They're in Savannah and they left me with a babysitter, but she's been acting really strange for the past few days so I came up here."

Lee closed his eyes and sighed, "So you've been by yourself through all this?"

Clementine nodded, "I just want my parents to come home now."

"I understand that, Clem. I want to find my parents too," Lee said to the little girl.

Clementine slid the hammer away and looked at Lee, "Where are your parents?"

"They're probably at their drug store, hopefully. If not they're back home just outside of Macon. But I think they might have been caught up in all of this," Lee said.

"Oh," she replied with her soft voice.

"How long has this been going on?" Lee asked looking at the little girl as she closed her eyes to think.

"I think maybe five days, that's when I came in here. Five days ago, and there were so many sirens. There was a lot of yelling and gun shots too."

"You must be really hungry, then," Lee said pulling his pack off.

Clementine shook her head and walked to the table and picked up a bag of chips, "I have chips!" she searched the bad and pouted as she found there was none left, "Well, I had chips."

Lee chuckled and pulled out an energy bar and handed it to the little girl, "Here, take this. If you get hungry it'll curb your appetite."

As Clementine took the energy bar the two could hear a yell and the shatter of glass. The two bolted to the observation platform of the tree house and saw a red headed zombie attacking Bud.

"Bud!" Lee yelled bolting to the ladder and climbing down as quickly as he could.

Lee ran to the zombie who had sent Bud over the edge of the deck and was now on too of him. Lee delivered a hard kick to the growling being, it flipped over onto it's back with a hiss and bloodthirsty growl.

Clementine nudged Lee, "Here!"

She handed him the hammer she had with her in the tree house, Lee snatched the hammer and hit the zombie in the forehead with the flat side sending it back down. Lee rushed over on top of the zombie and hit it once more caving its forehead in.b

Lee relaxed as it stopped moving, a few seconds of silence passed and it growled again. Lee raised the hammer high and sent it down with great force, blood splattered over Lee's blue button up shirt as the creature finally died.

Lee fell back on his him dropping the hammer and sighing.

"Is it dead?" Clementine asked moving closer to Lee.

"Yeah, it is," Lee said to the little girl who was grasping her forearm.

Lee twisted to the left, "Bud? You alright?"

Bud sat up and winced in pain, "Agh! Shit! I think I dislocated my arm."

Clementine gasped behind the two men, "What's wrong?" Lee asked with concern.

"That was a swear," she directed to Bud who sat confused and clutching his arm.

"Oh, I'm sorry- uh, what's your name?" he asked standing up with help from Lee.

"Clementine," she said.

"Well, it's nice to meet you, my name is Bud," he said patting her shoulder with his left hand.

"We should get inside, that noise might attract more," Lee said walking the two inside the house and blocking the broken sliding door with a couch.

Lee looked around at the room which was lit by the television which had the blue no signal screen on and the sunlight that flooded in through the windows. The floor was beginning to collect dust and had blood stains in the kitchen.

Bud sat in a chair in the dining room while wincing, "God, this hurts."

"I think I know where my parents keep the medicine," Clementine said walking into the kitchen.

Lee followed Clementine to the kitchen while carefully avoiding the blood in the entryway. Clementine squinted her eyes as she looked at each cabinet, she pointed up to one of the top cabinets, "I think they keep it in there."

Lee opened the cabinet, which fortunately, was the only cabinet that looked as though it hadn't been looted. He peered inside and found several bottles of medication, he recognized one of the bottles and took it out.

"I found some painkillers, Bud. You still have that water bottle?" Lee asked as he and Clementine returned to the living room.

Clementine walked back into the kitchen as Bud sifted through his pack, "Yeah I got it, now hand that stuff over. My arm is killing me."

Lee handed the small bottle of medication to Bud, he took it gratefully and stuffed two pills in his mouth.

"Lee?" Clementine called from the kitchen.

"Yeah."

"Can you come see?"

"Yeah sure thing, what is it?" Lee asked Clementine.

"I think I heard something," Clementine said with a worried expression.

"What?" Lee asked kneeling down next to the little girl.

Clementine looked around as though she was being observed, "There was some yelling and a car engine."

Lee nodded, "Stay behind me."

Clementine clung behind the older man in front of her, while Bud was rubbing his arm and looking at the two quizzically.

"Where's the killer?" Bud asked with a confused expression.

He scoffed as he received no reply from his brother or Clementine.

Clementine and Lee, with Lee taking a protective lead, walked to the front door and peered out the peep hole. Lee could see a man and his wife standing outside of a truck that held presumably their son. The car looked to have broken down as smoke was coming from the raised hood. Clementine winced as Lee opened the front door slightly to hear a bit of the conversation.

"Kenny, how long do you think we'll be out here?" the woman asked looking around as if waiting for zombies to come after them.

"Well goddamn Kat, I don't know. Hopefully not long," Kenny said shutting the hood and moving to get back into the driver's seat to rev the engine again.

Lee moved to shut the door but was spotted by Kenny, "Hey! Wait!"

**AN:**

**Hello again! Thank you for your wonderful reviews in chapter one (really the prologue, but still). Also, to guest, I checked the wiki again and it never mentioned anything about Lee's brother being named Ben. And either way, I would rather call him Bud because it would just be a mess when Ben Paul comes in. Sorry for another short chapter though, I promise the next one should be longer and should be out by Sunday or Monday so keep a look out for that! Anyway, feel free to review and tell me what you think. Any constructive criticism is welcome or suggestions of what you might want to see would be cool too. I'll see you guys next time in Chapter 2: Dodging or Quacking?**


	3. Chapter 3

**The Walking Dead: The World We Live In**

**Chapter Two: Dodging or Quacking?**

* * *

Lee winced as he was about to shut the door, "Hey, wait up!" Kenny called again.

Lee shut the door and locked it then turned to Clementine, "Stay back with Bud, he'll keep you safe, ok?"

Clementine bit her lip and nodded, "Okay, Lee."

The girl walked over to Bud who appeared to be getting drowsy from the medication. Lee sighed and turned around and unlocked the door. He stepped out the front door and realized just how dark it was getting, he began to wonder if the street lights would even work now.

"Hey, keep your voice down," Lee hissed as he saw Kenny was about to call to him one more time.

Lee walked down the brick driveway where Kenny met him half way. The man sported a tan shirt and jeans. He also wore a brown fisherman's cap.

"Do you have any idea what exactly is going on?" Lee asked Kenny.

"Well if you haven't noticed the dead are walking, and my truck just broke down," Kenny said.

"You need something, smart ass?" Lee asked crossing his arms.

Kenny shook his head and chuckled, "Sorry bad habit, my name is Kenny," the man said shaking Lee's hand with a firm grip.

Kenny walked down the driveway with Lee in suit and pointed at the broken down blue truck sitting on the side of the road, "In there is my wife Katjaa and my son Duck."

"Duck huh?" Lee asked.

"Yeah."

"So dodging or quacking?" Lee joked as they approached the blue vehicle.

Kenny grinned looking at his son who was speaking to his mother, "Definitely quacking, boy doesn't stop talking for anything. But shit, what are you going to do?"

Lee shrugged, "Do you have any kids- uh what's your name?"

"Lee, and no, I don't have kids."

Katjaa stepped out of the truck with Duck hot on her heels, "Honey? Who is this?"

Kenny stepped on the side of his family, "Duck, Katjaa, this is Lee," Kenny said introducing the three.

"It's very nice to meet you," Katjaa said with a warm smile.

Katjaa wore a tan shirt with yellow flowers on them and brown pants. She was slightly overweight and had thick, blonde hair and blue eyes.

"Lee?"

Lee turned around to see Clementine standing behind him, "Clementine? I told you to stay inside where it's safe."

Clementine grasped her forearm and drug her foot against the road innocently looking up at Lee. Her light brown eyes observed him from under the bridge of her white and blue hat.

"I'm sorry, Lee. I just wanted to check on you, you were out for a while."

Lee's heart melted at the child's innocence, he would've reprimanded her had it not been for her response.

"Hey, I thought you said you didn't have a kid Lee," Kenny observed with a puzzled expression.

Lee turned around to look at Kenny while Clementine stood behind him as though she was trying to keep out of sight. "No, she's not my kid. I found her in her tree house earlier. Her name is Clementine."

"That's a a pretty name," Katjaa said to Clementine.

"Thanks," Clementine replied meekly while blushing.

Lee scratched the back of his head as his eyes began adjusting to the darkness, "So what is it that you need?"

"We just need a place to stay the night, if you don't mind," Kenny said.

"Yes we really don't want to intrude," Katjaa said.

"Well it's really not my decision, it isn't my house," Lee said looking at Clementine.

She looked at the three new people and sighed, "Okay."

* * *

Lee sat on the second couch with Kenny talking about things non related to the new infection. Lee learned that Kenny was a commercial fisherman from Fort Lauderdale, Florida and were returning from Katjaa's sister's house in Tennessee when everything went bad.

Lee also learned that Katjaa was a veterinarian and knew a measurable amount about human and animal biology to help place Bud's arm back in its socket. Duck, on the other hand, was drawing pictures with Clementine on the counter. Everyone was taking the outbreak exceptionally well, one might assume that it was due to the true nature of the new world was still unknown.

Lee could tell Clementine was sad, though. He knew what it felt like to miss a parent. Missing their parents was something they were going through together. Lee hoped that tomorrow they would be able to find his parents in Macon.

"Lee? You heard me man?" Kenny asked waving his hand in front of Lee's face.

"What?" Lee asked returning to the real world.

Kenny rolled his eyes, "I asked what was it that you did before the apocalypse."

"Oh, I taught history at the University of Georgia up in Athens," Lee said to Kenny.

The fisherman raised his thick eyebrows, "History? Really? Can you give me the history of mackerel?"

Katjaa said, from her position standing over Bud about to put his arm back in place, "Oh Kenny."

"What? I'm just quizzing the instructor is all," Kenny said feigning innocence.

Lee rolled his eyes but replied, "No, but I can give you a mean overview of the Battle of Bunker Hill."

"Nah man, I'm good," Kenny said turning away from Lee.

Lee grinned and pushed himself further into the cushions of the leather couch allowing the atmosphere of a few lit candles to soothe him.

Lee could feel the vibrations radiate through the couch and to him signifying that the man was getting up. Lee began to fall into sleeps embrace before he caught what Katjaa was about to say.

"Now this is only going to hurt for a second, okay? In going to count back from five. Five, four, three, two, one."

SNAP.

"Gah! Fuck, that hurt!" Bud exclaimed bringing Lee out of his sleep deprived trance.

Clementine looked up from her drawing and shot Bud a pointed glare. With a wince and a stretch of his arm Bud replied, "Sorry, it slipped."

Clementine shook her head and continued drawing and conversing with Duck. Katjaa put her hands on her hips, "The pain should start to go away tomorrow around this time, it will be sore too. If you feel the pain increasing take a simple painkiller, nothing prescribed. Try not to lift anything too heavy either."

Bud nodded at everything Katjaa had said, "Yeah I gotcha Doc."

"Good," Katjaa said patting Bud's good shoulder, "It's been a long day for everyone I assume? We should get some rest."

"Mom, I don't wanna go to bed," Duck pouted.

Katjaa smiled at her son, "If you go to sleep now, you'll wake up earlier and be up longer, doesn't that sound good Duckie?"

Duck thought for a moment, swaying as he did so, pulling himself out of thought he beamed at his mother, "That sounds great!"

Katjaa laughed and Kenny smiled. It was agreed that Kenny's family would sleep in the living room, Clementine would sleep in hers and Lee and Bud would sleep in the guest room.

"I am so beat, come on man," Bud said pulling Lee down the hall with him down to the guest room.

Lee stopped Bud, "Hey I'm going to go check on Clementine real quick, ok?"

Bud shrugged, "Hey that's you, I don't mind more bed space anyway."

Lee rolled his eyes and walked into Clementine's room where the little girl had put her hat on the wooden bedside table. The table had previously held a lamp but now had a small bundle of lit candles that illuminated half of the room in a warm glow.

"You know I never got around to asking you about that hat," Lee said picking up the white and blue hat and twisting it around.

Clementine smiled and sat up, "My dad gave it to me for my eighth birthday. He told me the D meant daddy's girl but I think it was one of those sports teams he always watched."

Lee laughed softly, "What, like the Dodgers?"

Clementine shrugged, "How am I supposed to know, I'm just a little girl."

"You're a very smart little girl, for eight you're very intelligent," Lee said rubbing her small shoulder.

Clementine smiled brightly at Lee, "How so?"

Lee thought for a moment looking up at the ceiling and rocking back in forth on the edge of the bed, "Well you've been outsmarting Duck all day and when I found you you had sense to climb into your tree house where those things couldn't get to you."

"Well I guess the tree house thing was smart, but," she looked around as though she was looking for someone who might be watching them, "Duck isn't that smart though Lee."

Lee chuckled, "I guess your right about that one."

Clementine giggled with the man, Lee sighed and got up. "Blow out those candles when your ready to go to sleep, I'll see you in the morning."

Lee got up to walk out of the room, "Wait Lee!" Clementine whispered.

The girl looked afraid now and Lee approached her with concern, "What is it?"

"Will she come back?"

"Who?" Lee asked with concern.

"Sandra, my babysitter," Clementine said fearfully as if the teenaged babysitter was going to come back in any minute now.

"No, Clementine, she's never coming back. I promise okay?" Lee said looking the eight year old in the eye.

Older dark brown eyes met youthful bright brown ones, "Okay, Lee."

"Lee?" Clementine asked again.

"Yes?"

"Can you stay with me the night? I don't want to sleep in here alone," Clementine asked pulling her purple covers up.

"Yeah, sure," Lee said spinning around and lying down on the floor next to Clementine's bed.

"Try not to step on me, okay?" Lee asked jokingly.

Clementine laughed softly, "I'll try."

"Well now it's not too difficult, Clem."

"Yeah, but you could be kind of like a landing pad," Clementine said.

"I'm not your personal trampoline, Clem."

Clementine rolled over onto her side where she could look at Lee who had his fore arm resting over his eyes and left arm supporting the back of his head.

"Lee?"

"Yeah?"

Clementine paused for a moment biting her lip and looking down at Lee, "What are you going to do with me tomorrow?"

Lee opened his eyes and looked at the eight year old, "What do you mean?"

Clementine, "Well you guys are going to Macon tomorrow, and I don't know-"

"Clementine, you're coming with us," Lee said grunting as he got up to his knees so that their faces where even, "I'm not going to leave you alone again, okay? I'll never leave you, Clem. You're never going to have to be alone again." Lee rubbed her shoulder and have her a small smile that was barely lit by the dying candles.

"Promise?" Clementine sat up.

"I promise," Lee said putting his hand over his heart.

Clementine reached over and hugged Lee, returning the hug Lee layer the girl back down. "Now get some sleep okay? God knows that Duck is and he's going to keep you up all day so you might want to be prepared for that."

Clementine laughed and closed her eyes, "Okay Lee, goodnight."

**AN:**

**Hello, hello! How's it going you guys? I hope you really enjoyed the chapter as much as I did writing it. I'm going to pin down the next chapter for Wednesday so watch out for that. Oh, and have any of you guys watched Breaking Bad? I've been watching it for the past week and I love that show. I can't believe I never watched it before, heh. Anyway, if you guys wouldn't mind checking out this story: The Walking Dead: Cold Blood. It's an OC based story and still needs some OC's so you can make one and send it there. Anyway, like I always say, I'll see you guys in the next chapter!**


	4. Chapter 4

**The Walking Dead: The World We Live In**

**Chapter Three: To Macon**

* * *

The following day before anyone had risen from their sleep and the birds had just begun singing Lee and Bud slipped out for a walk in the forest. It was quiet between them except for a 'How did you sleep?' and 'How is that arm holding up?'. Other than that, the two men were quiet.

Having been around his brother nearly all his life Lee could tell there was something Bud wanted to say.

"What's wrong?" Lee asked hoping he wouldn't have to pry at his brother.

Bud shrugged and winced slightly at the soreness that had been ailing him since he had woken, "Fuckin' arm."

"Try not to move it around so much, Katjaa said-"

"I know what Katjaa said," Bud said cutting Lee off.

Lee was taken aback by his brother's harshness, "I know you want to tell me something, so what is it?"

Bud stopped and leaned against a thin tree, carved in the tree was 'Dana loves Andrew'. Bud closed his eyes and massaged his temples, "She misses her parents doesn't she?"

Lee looked up from his brown shoes and made eye contact with the youngest Everett, "Clementine? Yeah, of course she does."

Bud sighed and breathed in deeply, "Her parents are dead, Lee. They're gone."

"What- wh- How do you know this?" Lee asked incredulously.

"The answering machine, Lee. I checked it when I was searching the house. Her parents, they died in Savannah, and I think her dad died first. Lee, what are we going to tell her?"

Lee pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes, he exhaled rapidly. Sucking his bottom lip in he looked back up at Bud with a stone cold face.

"Nothing," Lee said swallowing the lump that was forming in his throat.

Bud's eyes widened, "What do you mean, 'nothing'?" Bud pushed his slim frame off of the tree, "We can't just let her go on in hopes that they're still alive."

"What are we without hope, Bud?" Lee asked leaning his head forward as if waiting for a smarmy answer, "Now listen, we won't tell her now. Just wait for the right time."

Bud smiled sarcastically, "Oh hey Clem, good morning. Did you know your parents are dead?"

Lee balled his fists angrily glaring at his younger brother. "You know what I'm saying!" Lee hissed crossing his arms.

"Yeah sure, whatever. Let's just get back," Bud said walking quickly back to Clementine's house.

Lee, fuming, stormed back to the house while trying to suppress his anger. That was one thing that Lee had a problem with, anger. It didn't take too much to push the anger down, it was controlling it when he couldn't keep it down.

Still, Lee tried to slow himself down and take his time getting back to the house. Lee looked at the rays of sunlight pushing its way through the breaks in the leaves and trees. Lee could tell that the sun had only risen a quarter of the way into the sky. The clouds that painted the baby blue sky showed evidence as they were still streaked with purple and orange wisps.

Lee could see far ahead of him that Bud was just now scaling the wooden fence to Clementine's house. Lee quickened his pace to catch up. Reaching the fence he quickly scrambled over and saw that Kenny was leaning on the railing smoking a cigarette and rubbing his eyes.

"So there you two are," Kenny said blowing smoke from his mouth and grunting as Bud brushed past him and walked into the house.

"How'd you guys sleep?" Lee asked walking up the four steps up to the deck.

"It was alright, better than the truck," Kenny said flicking the cigarette into the lush green grass.

Kenny twisted to where he was leaning on his q side, "Clementine was looking for you, thought maybe you left her."

Lee nodded, "Yeah I'm gonna go check on her, you guys grabbed any food or anything for the road?"

Kenny nodded, "We've got a large supply of Vienna sausages if that helps."

"Oh, lovely," Lee murmured recalling his dislike for those. He would certainly have to check for more canned food before he left.

The shattered glass of the sliding door crunched lowly as he stepped inside the house. Rays of sunlight peeped in from every open crevice, several small circular rays from the blinds shone upon Lee's button up shirt as he looked around the room.

The front door was open and Lee could see Katjaa and Duck loading small boxes into the back of the pickup truck. Looking to his right into the kitchen all of the cabinets were opened crushing any chance of Lee getting a decent meal. He shook his head and walked down the dimly lit hallway.

Before he could enter Clementine's room, assuming that she was there of course, Bud stopped him.

"Look Lee, I get it. You want to wait, I'm sorry. I was being irrational, but I get what you're saying, I just don't want to lie, ya' know?" Bud asked looking up at Lee and scratching the back of his neck.

Lee put his hand on his brother's shoulder and delivered a comforting squeeze, "I understand, I don't want to lie either. We just have to wait until the right time, ok?"

Bud looked down and nodded his head slightly, "Yeah, I got it," he looked up at Katjaa coming into the house to grab another small box that was sitting on the couch.

"Hey, I'm going to go help Katjaa and Duck out, you and Clem get packed. We'll be leaving pretty soon I think," Bud said walking past Lee.

Lee passed Bud and opened Clementine's slightly closed door which sported a small pink 'C' on it. Clementine was getting her things together which consisted of an extra pair of clothes, a pair of walkie talkies and two coloring books. Lee walked in a stretched his arms in the air, "Hey Clem," he saw during a yawn.

Clementine turned around and smiled at Lee, "I didn't know where you were going Lee, I was starting to get worried."

Lee knelt down in front of her and grinned, "Really, starting? Because Kenny said you were up the walls in worry," he teased.

"I was not!" she huffed, "Only a little."

"I'm just joking, Clem," he said tapping the bridge of her cap.

She placed her small hands on her head and looked at Lee with a giggle which shook her small frame. Lee laughed with the girl and rocked backwards against the disheveled bed.

"You about packed, kiddo?" Lee asked gesturing to her backpack.

Clementine inspected her progress and zipped up her purple backpack, "Yeah, I'm done."

Lee nodded and looked over at his hiking backpack, there wasn't anything else in there aside from protein bars, an empty water bottle, and a change of jeans and black jacket.

"Me too," Lee said pushing himself to his feet.

"Can you help me up?" Clementine asked holding her hands out.

Lee grinned as he got an idea, he grabbed her wrists firmly but not enough to cause discomfort. He yanked up using the power from his strong build to yank the girl up to his height of 6'2. Clementine yelped as she reached his height but laughed as Lee held her and spun her around before gently setting her to the ground.

"That was fun, Lee!" Clementine exclaimed.

Lee laughed and agreed with the eight year old girl. Lee slung the brown and black bag over his shoulder and together the two walked out of the door.

The house was closed up aside from the front door. Kenny had just walked out to get into the drivers seat and Bud was sitting in the very back of the truck.

Clementine tugged on Lee's hand with a worried expression.

"Lee, should I stay here?" she asked meekly.

The two were in the doorway as the sunlight shone on them. Lee crouched down to the girl and out a hand on her shoulder, "Why would you ask that?"

Clementine frowned and gripped her forearm, "Well what if my parents come home and I'm not here?"

Lee lowered his head then looked up at the little girl he had sworn to himself and her to protect.

"We won't be too far from here, we'll know if they come back okay?" he asked rubbing her shoulder comfortingly.

Clementine smiled and nodded ten rushed forward and hugged Lee, he thought he would never be able to describe the guilt he felt.

"Thank you, Lee."

**AN:**

**Hey guys, I'm sorry for not having the chapter up on Wednesday. I was having some serious problems with my ISP and when I switched over to a new one the internet was down so I had to fix that. Anyway, I'll do my best so that this won't happen again. And I'm sorry about the short chapter but I wanted to get one out as soon as possible. Anyway, I'll see you guys in the next chapter that will be up by Monday or Tuesday.**


	5. Chapter 5

**The Walking Dead: The World We Live In**

**Chapter Four: Everette's Drugs**

* * *

After a forty minute drive into downtown Macon the blue pickup truck began to sputter. Lee knew the truck had run out of gas, he also knew that it was okay because they stopped on the intersection his parent's drug store was located.

Kenny got out of the truck, "Well, we're out of gas, but this is our stop. We can go in, get your folks, siphon some gas and be out of here. Simple," Kenny stated rubbing his hands on his blue jeans as Lee helped Clementine down from the pickup.

Bud began walking to the front gate which was closed, "I think they might be here, they closed the gates."

Duck slipped away from his parents and down the road right of the pharmacy.

"Hey, look!" Duck called to the group.

Kenny, Katjaa, and Lee walked over to the boy who was quite obviously feeling proud of himself for pointing out a man that appeared to be working on his car.

Kenny stepped forward and cupped his hands around his mouth to project his already loud voice, "Hey, you friendly? We need some gas!"

Kenny grinned and jabbed Lee in the ribs lightly, "Problem solved."

The man, or rather, zombified corpse jerked it's decayed, gray head upwards with a low moan. It stumbled backwards seemingly breaking it's ankle and stumbling towards the group.

The noise, which Lee was now certain tracked the beings to one's location, cause more walkers to get up and hungrily herd towards them. Lee turned and ran to Clementine which a walker was nearing, Bud on the other hand was dealing with one that was presumed dead. Lee twisted his body to the right and delivered a hard lunch to the walkers peeling and most likely disjointed jaw.

Clementine shrieked, "Stay behind me, Clem!" Lee shouted behind him as the walker charged at him once more.

Lee shoved the walker back into an abandoned car. The walker's sensitive skin burst and spilt blood as it was violently shoved into the mirror of a red car. It grabbed at Lee once more yanking it towards him, it looked like it wanted to bite him. Saliva dripping from it's decayed yellow teeth it pulled itself towards Lee hungrily opening it's jaw.

A loud crack was heard and blood flew from the walker's skull to Lee's face. Lee fell to his rear and looked towards his savior. She wore a white button up dress shirt and black skirt which was slightly torn on the side. She wielded a Glock 17 and was currently unleashing a volley of well aimed shots on the growing mass of walker's. Her brown hair was barely past her shoulder and her eyes, her eyes were a beautiful shade of brown and showed determination.

Lee was so engrossed in this woman that he didn't even realize Clementine was worriedly tugging on his button up shirt and urging him to 'Get up!'. Lee jumped up to Clementine's constant requests and picked the girl up.

A Korean-American man with a brown Pizza Delivery jacket and baseball cap yelled from the front entrance, "Come on!"

Kenny rushed with Katjaa at his side and a muck-covered Duck in his arms into the drug store.

The group crowded before the door as the former pizza delivery man shut the gate and locked it. Clementine stuck close to Lee grasping his leg tightly and looking around. Bud stuck back with the Korean man and watched as Kenny and Katjaa checked Duck over. The woman stayed in front and opened the double doors Lee was so familiar with.

"Goddamnit, Carley! We can't keep taking risks like this!" that voice was so familiar to Lee.

The familiarity didn't deter him from what he came to do. He scanned the area thoroughly yet he could see no sign of his parents. Maybe they went back home and locked the shop up, maybe-

"Lilly?" Bud asked stepping forward into the heated argument between Lee's savior, Lilly, and her overprotective father Larry.

"You know this woman?" Kenny asked seeing Katjaa and Duck off to the counter to clean him up.

Lee observed that Duck wasn't speaking, or moving much for that matter. He drug his feet against the white tiled floor, mostly due to his mother's attempt of making the child mobile.

Bud turned to Kenny, "Yeah, they were regulars around here. Lee and I know them."

Larry, removing himself from his usual self to a more pleasant self, walked to Bud and clapped his shoulder firmly only for Bud to since and inhale sharply.

"It's good to see you again, son," Larry said and then looked over at Lee with a scowl.

"Lee," Larry grunted.

"See, Lilly. You can trust us, it's me, Lee and Clementine, and Kenny and his family. We're completely trustworthy," Bud said stepping closer to Lilly persuasively.

Larry scoffed, "I trust you, and maybe the kid, but not those assholes over there."

Bud frowned, "Come on, Larry they're-"

Kenny stepped up angrily, "Hey, don't worry about it, I don't need approval from some shit bag like him," Kenny spat jabbing a finger towards Larry.

Before Lilly could speak up Larry silenced her with a raised hand and turned to Kenny, "Listen here asshole-"

Clementine tugged on Lee's hand effectively startling the man, "What is it?"

Clementine looked around nervously at the bulky boy who peeked out of the crevices of the pharmacy and Carley who went to check up on Katjaa and Duck, "I-I have to pee."

The gears in Lee's brain were reactivated from their panicked state and began to remap the layout of the building since the last time he had worked here. He last remembered his father placing the master key behind the counter, "Check behind the counter, there's a red sticky note on the drawer," Lee said to Clementine who walked off.

Lee looked up to catch another point of the argument, "Holy shit," Larry murmured looking at Duck.

"Oh what's your problem now?" Kenny asked, his irritation going higher than the commercial fisherman thought possible.

Larry looked towards Duck and said quietly and emotionlessly, "He's bitten."

Carley looked up at Larry confused, "What are you talking about? A walker fell on him and I shot it, it's just its entrails."

Larry laughed heartily, "That's really funny," he turned to Lilly and murmured, "Dumb motherfucker."

Kenny walked over to Duck, "My boy is NOT bitten!"

Bud turned to Larry, "Come on, man. He's not bitten, and even if he was-"

"He's not," Kenny cut him off.

"I know, but even if he was, he's just a boy. What's the worst he could do?"

"Wh- What's the worst he could do?! Well I'll tell you, first, he'll sink his crooked little teeth into his mom's neck-"

"Alright Larry, that's enough!" Lee said to the old man.

"You shut your fucking mouth-" Larry growled walking closer to Lee forcing Lee to step back.

Lilly butted in, "Dad, your heart! You need to calm down."

"Fuck him, he's better off gone," Kenny snapped.

"Me, what about that walker over there huh?" Larry asked pointing to Duck.

"No, he is not bitten, damnit!" Kenny yelled looking at Lee for support.

Lee was on Kenny's side fully now, Lee felt that the old man was going to far.

Bud piped up from his position watching events unfold with Carley, both unsure of what to do, "Larry, calm down. Kenny, stop taunting him."

Kenny turned to Lee's brother, "Taunting him? Are you shutting me, Bud?! He wants to throw my boy out!"

Larry's eyes brightened, "Yeah, now get the fuck out of my way!"

Katjaa yelled, "No Kenny, Lee, stop him!"

"What are do you want me to do, Lee? Should I hit him?" Kenny asked balling his fists.

"Fuck it, I'm throwing him out!" Larry growled moving to push past Lee.

"No!" Lee yelled.

Larry stopped and looked at Lee, this had to have been the most pissed off version of Larry he had ever seen, "You are such a fucking failure-"

"Woah now," Bud said moving to stop Larry.

"Why couldn't you have been like your father, a sensible man, but no. You had to turn out to be an ignorant piece of shit. Your ignorance is going to get us all killed if you don't let me stop that boy," Larry growled then looked over at Clementine who was fumbling with the lock, "Your ignorance is going to get that little girl of yours killed."

Lee grouped the edge of the counter top fighting to see regular colors instead of red, Lilly reached out and reprimanded her father for being so foul. Lee couldn't hear though, he could only see Larry. He could only hear Larry.

"Truth hurts, doesn't it?" Larry spat.

The rage Lee was fighting to keep down the past five minutes finally won Lee over and he lashed out delivering a hard right hook to Larry's big nose. Blood flew and Lee could hear a snap as Larry fell back into a rack of gum and other candy.

Lee was captivated with rage that was only broken by Bud rushing over and slamming him into a shelf of greeting cards and post cards. Lee looked down at a postcard that showed the canals of Venice which read 'Wish You Were Here'.

Lee would have laughed at the irony if he wasn't so angry, "Lee, shit. What the fuck was that?" Bud asked Lee grasping his shoulder tightly.

"You mother-" Larry gasped clutching his nose while Lilly wiped the blood away throwing glares of hatred towards Lee.

Before Lee could answer his brother a shriek resonated throughout the pharmacy. Lee snapped his attention to the yell that could have only come from Clementine. And as soon as the adrenaline could leave it was back to fuel Lee's body, his drive to protect Clementine. He burst from his brother's arms like a bullet to its target. Shoving Glen out of the way and skidding around the family planning aisle he rushed the walker.

Clementine backed away as she saw Lee, who must have forgotten the strength of the walkers, charged the decaying corpse. Lee wrapped his hands around the beings neck feeling its skin peel and warm, dark red blood ooze onto his hands. The walker's skull split against the surface of the wall, not yet killing it but fueling its hunger-driven rampage as it shoved Lee onto the ground. It pushed itself upwards getting ready to bite down on Lee's neck until a bullet passed through the monster's skull ending its life forever.

Lee could feel the drops of blood fall to his face and the corpse fall onto his body. Lee pushed the dead weight off and got up, Clementine rushed to Lee, "Lee!"

Embracing the child he looked to the source of the shot only to see Carley just now lowering his gun. He was going to offer a thank you before Larry have his two cents about Carley's actions.

"You dumb bitch! Now you've just about drawn them all to us, you are all just a bunch of brainless fucks aren't you?" he growled looking around at the group of people.

He was, however, right about one thing. The walkers did hear their dinner bell and through the silence the group could hear them clawing at the gate and boards trying to find any way in that they could.

Everyone ducked behind the nearest shelf they could that way if any walker got in they could remain hidden and dash for the exit.

"They're gonna get in," Larry observed.

"Shut up," Kenny hissed over Katjaa who was holding Suck close.

With Carley's help she had a managed to get the boy all cleaned up, aside from his entrail stained shirt and jeans.

Gunshots drew the walkers away over time, "Is that the military?" Lee wondered aloud.

"I'm not sure," Lilly said from her position near the doors.

"Whatever it was, I'm grateful," the Korean man said slumping against the solid metal sides of the aisle.

Larry scoffed standing up to walk to the counter shaking his head with a scowl, "Relieved? Me too, because of this dumb bitch," he pointed a stubby finger to Carley, "We almost fucking died! How could you be so damned stupid? I would love to fucking kn-" he clenched his heart and groaned in pain fighting to stand up.

Lee knew it was a heart attack, Lilly and Larry always had nitroglycerin pills filled every month. Now the man had slumped against the family planning aisle and fell over, back facing Lee and a scared Clementine.

Bud and Lilly rushed to Larry, "Damnit, he's had a a heart attack," Bud said rolling him to his back.

"He needs nitroglycerin pills then," Katjaa said putting Duck down and rushing to Bud and Lilly's aid.

"We're out, and we've been trying to get into the pharmacy all day. Bud, you worked here, you have to help me," Lilly begged.

Bud nodded and turned to Lee, "I saw Chad, remember him? He was outside, he probably has the key."

Kenny nodded, "You guys go and get those keys, everyone else should rest up and look for anything we can take with us."

"I'm getting the idea this isn't a permanent setup," the Korean man said rubbing the back of his neck.

"I agree, this isn't Fort Knox or anything," Kenny said.

Lee crossed his arms, "So what are you suggesting, uh?"

"Glenn," he said, "And I think we're going to need a lot of gas so we can all get out of here. There's a motel not to far from here, right on the edge of Peachtree. I can work my way there, see about some fortifications and them work my way back around siphoning what I can."

Lee nodded with approval, "That's a great idea, great but crazy."

"Well it has to get done one way or another, and I know my way around town," Glenn shrugged.

"You a local?" Lee asked.

"Born and raised, you?" Glenn asked Lee who nodded in turn.

"Go get a walkie talkie from Clem and radio back if you need or see anything," Lee said.

"I'll be quick, I know all the back roads. It'll take thirty minutes tops I bet," Glen said walking to Clementine.

"You, let Lee and Bud out to get those keys," Kenny said posting to the man standing by the door.

"It's Doug," he said turning to the doors and waiting for Lee and Bud.

"Carley, I want you to watch them, make sure they're safe. But be careful, you're a good shot and if like to keep it that way."

Carley nodded, "You've got it boss."

"Now, let's get those pills."

**AN:**

**Hey guys, hope you liked this long chapter. I like to think of the length as an apology of not having the previous chapter out in time. Oh, and thank you to everyone who is reading this story, I am so happy to have awesome readers like you guys! I'll see you guys in the next chapter coming out Thursday or Friday**!


	6. Chapter 6

**The Walking Dead: The World We Live In**

**Chapter Five:Sacrifice **

* * *

The outside of the pharmacy was surrounded by walkers. Each growling and stumbling about aimlessly, occasionally they would bump into each other with a grunt or snarl and amble away from each other. Lee, Bud, and Doug crouched near the black metal gate taking in the scene of the new world. Doug, with his thin lips pulled in inquisitively looked at the brothers, "We need to find a way to get this gate open."

Bud nodded and looked beyond the rotten monsters and towards a fallen power line, "Hey, guys, over there," he whispered and pointed towards Chad who was now zombified and leaning against the wall with the wooden beam pressing against his torso.

"Chad," Lee stated, "Shit."

"And this is the guy who has the pharmacy key?" Doug asked then thought, "What about that master key you showed Clementine?"

Lee shook his head, "My dad wanted to be safe and ordered a special lock and key for the pharmacy, and Chad was the only one that had it."

Doug sighed and gripped the bars tightly, "Any ideas on getting to him without getting a meal made out of ourselves?"

"Well I noticed those things are attracted to noise, we just have to lure them away with something," Bud said looking at the concrete they were standing on for anything they could use to lure the walkers attention away from Chad's vicinity.

"How about something to break that glass over there?" Doug asked pointing to a display case which housed several plasma screen TV's.

"Well that something is likely to be inside, we should go back in and look for something to break that with. And grab the key, too, while you're at it. We'll need the gate open to actually throw anything useful at that glass," Lee said standing up.

"Yeah, and for added noise," Doug said walking them into the pharmacy and glancing over the shelves, "We can use this universal remote to attract them."

"How do you plan on programming all of those TV's?" Lee asked as Bud brushed his fingers lightly over the items that still remained on the shelves and racks.

Doug squinted his eyes at the back and front of the remote and began tapping the solid rubber keys, "I memorized all of the programming codes, finally came in useful I guess."

Lee nodded patting Doug on the shoulder as he continued to program the remote and looked over at Clementine who sat against a shelf clutching her walkie talkie to her chest. Lee walked to Bud and put a hand on hi shoulder, "Hey, I'm going to go check on Clementine alright? You should check and see if mom kept that personal fitness rack up and get some weights. We can use them to throw at the windows."

"Yeah alright, tell the kid I said hi," he said with a small smile and walked over to the personal fitness aisle.

Lee grinned slightly despite their situation, he walked over to Clementine with his hands in his pockets and sat against the shelf next to her.

"Hey, you heard from Glenn yet?" he asked.

Clementine looked at the walkie talkie sideways, "No, not yet. When are we going to leave these people, Lee?"

"What do you mean?" Lee asked.

"Well I don't mind Carley or Kenny and his family, but Lilly and that sick guy, I don't really like them that much Lee," she said pulling her legs in and looking up at Lee.

"I don't like Larry that much either," he said in a hushed tone, "But we're stronger with numbers, Clem."

"Oh," she said exploring the small device with her thumb.

"Well it doesn't mean I have to like him," she said proudly.

Lee chuckled at Clementine's sudden remark, "Well there you go, just stay away from him and you'll be fine."

"Yeah, he said you were gonna get me killed," she said sadly and then looked back to Lee with bright eyes, "But you saved me!"

Lee smiled leaning his head against the cold metal, "Yeah, I did, didn't I?"

Clementine smiled and fiddled with her fingers, "Could you keep doing that?"

"What?"

"Keeping me safe, I mean like stopping those things," she said.

"Oh, well, I'm not going to go looking for them or anything. But as long as I'm alive, I'm going to keep you safe, okay?" he reassured the little girl who smiled and gave Lee a quick hug.

"Alright, hang tight Clem, we'll be out of here soon," he said patting her head affectionately.

Seeing as Bud was still struggling looking for weights Lee decided he would go ahead and talk to Carley, she did save his life twice, so why wouldn't one want to thank his savior? Lee approached the woman who was working on a battery operated radio, she appeared to be having trouble operating it.

"Having trouble with that radio?" Lee asked leaning on the counter across from her.

Carley looked up, "Yeah, Lee right?" Lee nodded.

"Nice to meet you Carley, I'm Lee," he said extending his hand which Carley shook.

"This damn radio," Carley muttered shaking it violently, "I swear they don't make quality products anymore."

"Well I'm not much of a tech expert but may I take a look?" Lee asked .

Carley shrugged, "Knock yourself out, because personally, I'm about to beat the shit out of that thing."

Lee tried the power button, the reset button, volume and tuning knobs but nothing seemed to work. He came to the conclusion that perhaps the batteries could have went bad.

"This thing's batteries might ave gone bad and leaked battery acid," Lee said moving to open the back panel.

Carley shook her head, "No, that can't be it, I put new batteries in it a few minutes ago."

Lee opened the back panel to find the batteries intact - but in the wrong way. Lee fought to keep his smile off his face but ended up laughing quietly and having to put his head down on the white counter. As Lee was shaking with laughter Carley put her hand on her hip and had a sassy look on her face, "What's so funny?"

Lee grinned and pulled the batteries out, "Have you ever, by any chance, used batteries before?"

Carley rolled her eyes, "Well of course I have!"

"Really? Because you put them in the wrong way," he smiled putting the batteries in the proper way.

"There's no way! I know I put them in properly!" Carley protested.

"Well we'll just have to keep you from those batteries," Lee said placing the batteries inside the slot and clipping the panel shut.

"Shut up," Carley said turning the radio on.

"Oh, and Carley?"

Carley looked up at Lee questioningly, "Yeah?"

"Thanks for saving my ass, twice really," he said.

"No problem, I'll just have to keep you away from those walkers," she grinned as she mocked him.

Lee rolled his eyes and walked over to Bud who had finally found the weights, "Alright, I've got the weights," Bud said holding up two five pound weights and flexing dramatically.

"Come on, let's go get those keys," Lee said putting his hand on Bud's back and moving him to the front doors where Doug was waiting for them.

"Alright, I have the keys and the remote, I'm ready when you are," Doug said fiddling with the keys.

"Alright, let's get this over with," Bud said opening the doors and walking out to the gate and crouched down with Lee and Doug following in suit.

Lee took the keys from Doug and unlocked and opened the gate doors, Bud picked up the weights and threw them as hard as he could to the TV display window across the street.

"Now, Doug," Lee hissed.

Doug set the TV's to turn on, the staticky hiss of the televisions not being able to reach a signal attracted the walker's attention. They tripped and rubbed against each other to get to the disturbance, taking the opportunity to move, Lee ran as quietly and quickly as he could to get to his former co-worker.

From afar it looked as though Chad was alive, but he wasn't. A bullet hole was embedded in his forehead, the charred and decayed skin around the bullet hole was glazed with dried blood. Lee cringed and reached into the man's front pocket of his green uniform shirt, it was usually where he kept his keys. Bingo! The keys were there and the walkers were still captivated by the lines of static and the sound of the television.

One of them stirred as Lee began to move back to his brother and Doug, then two, then three. Now every corpse was hissing and looking down the road at the pair of headlights that sped towards them. The blue pizza delivery vehicle leveled two of them as Glenn got out, the miniature horde scrambled as quickly as their bloodied peeling legs could carry them.

"I'll fill up the truck! You guys get inside, we need to leave right now!" Glenn yelled running to the trunk.

Throwing stealth to the wind Lee sprinted back inside the pharmacy with Bud and Doug hot on his trail. "What the fuck is going on?" Kenny asked stepping away from his family.

"I need to get through to the pharmacy!" Lee said rushing to the door of the office only to be stopped by Doug.

"No! You don't need to go, I got it. Just go check on Clementine," he said taking the keys from Lee.

Lee moved to Clementine who was confused, "What's going on Lee?" she asked looking around at the commotion.

"We have to go, the walkers are going to get in," Lee said helping the girl up, "Didn't Glenn radio in?"

She shook her head and flattened her white dress, "No, I don't know why though."

Lee nodded and turned to Kenny, "Go get your truck! Glenn's filling it up now, Bud and I can bring your family out. Lilly, Doug should be out with your dad's pills soon, take your dad and Carley with you and go with Glenn."

Clementine huddled next to Lee as the front doors were now being banged on, Carley ran through to the office to the back door shouting, "I'm going to go help Glenn!"

Lee and Bud held the doors shut as the alarm began to ring and the pounding increased. In a few moments Doug burst out from the office, "Here, give him his pills, we have to move now!"

"Doug, give us a hand!" Bud shouted.

"We'll need to block the door!" Lee shouted.

"No," Doug said hanging his head, "Just go."

"What, no? We're not leaving you here!" Lee said with determination.

"I'll take Katjaa and Duck out, you guys hurry!" Lilly said moving outside to the car and truck with Katjaa, Duck and Larry leaving Lee, Bud, Doug, and Clementine inside of the pharmacy.

The windows shattered and a walker fell through, "I wasn't going to live long anyway! And I would rather die knowing I helped someone live another day, now go!"

It was true, if they all let go of the doors they would be open and the walkers would be able to grab them, someone had to stay.

"Go!" Doug yelled.

Lee and Bud backed off as Doug held the door closed with two hands and pushing his body weight against the boarded up glass doors. As the walker that got in approached him Lee turned around with remorse and picked Clementine up as he and Bud ran to the exit.

The trio piled into the back of the blue pickup, each one traumatized and exasperated. The truck sped off following the nimble pizza delivery car out of Macon leaving the walkers to the dust.

Next stop, the motel.

**AN:**

**Hey guys, how's it going? So I kind of had a hard time writing this chapter because I didn't know how to play everything off well but I don't think it turned out to horribly, right? Anyway next chapter will be out by Tuesday and will consist of Lee and Bud learning about their parents fate and setting themselves up at the motel. I promise you guys the next chapters will be better than this one. Also, I'm accepting any ideas about what you want to see happen in the next couple of chapters because they will consist of what happened during the three month time skip between episodes one and two. I might even accept an OC to use for a little while, so send an OC and/or an idea via PM or a review. And as always, I'll see you guys in the next chapter!**


	7. Chapter 7

**The Walking Dead: The World We Live In**

**Chapter Six: Day One**

* * *

"Would you please, kindly, put your fucking backs into this?" Larry growled once again trying to flip the dumpster into its side.

"You want help, or are you going to continue being stubborn?" Lee asked from atop the RV situated diagonally along the motel parking lot to the road.

Kenny shot Larry a menacing glare as the two continued trying to push the dumpster, "No, fuck off and watch our asses would you?" Larry spat.

For the past half hour the two men were installing fortified gates, which were the dumpsters, to the hastily made fence line. Given the first six hour shift of watch duty, Lee had been watching the two with great interest, and as Larry struggled, with great humor. Kenny had the idea of drilling wheels from a few stray shopping carts the group salvaged from the grocery store a few miles down the road onto the dumpster.

As the two men continued to struggle, Bud walked over and offered his help. To which Larry, of course, accepted and called Kenny 'a useless sack of shit'. Lee turned his attention away from the three and looked down at Duck and Clementine. Glenn, who was lying in the back bed of Kenny's truck, had been to first to do some scavenging in the motel rooms and had found a few coloring books, some markers, and chewed on coloring pencils.

Carley was currently out scouting the forest with Lilly looking for any streams, animals, basically any natural food and water supply they could find. Of course they wouldn't be back until nightfall only because of their scouting trip, but because Lilly wanted to reinforce Carley's knowledge and handling of her weapon or any other weapon they might come across.

Katjaa, who was watching the kids, was going over all of the medical supplies they had. Making inventory notes and such so that she could give them to Lilly.

To Kenny's annoyance, Lilly had practically appointed herself leader the previous night. Lee knew that Lilly's views on survival were based on her father and the rest of the group while Kenny's idea of survival was to keep his family safe. Lee could tell that their differed views and urge to have leadership over the group would only lead to conflict and an all around bad environment.

Sighing, Lee sat back setting the pistol down into his lap and closing his eyes. Opening his eyes to glance at his watch he saw that his time was running out for watch duty and Glenn would be up next soon.

"Lee, this is Lilly. You hear me?" Lilly asked through her end of the walkie talkie.

Lee clicked the button to speak and leaned forward, "Yeah, what's going on? Are you guys all right?"

"We're fine, but we need you over here. Bring Kenny's truck with you, go left out of the motel and right onto Leighton Street, stop at the grocery store and lock the truck, we'll meet you there. Bring the duffel bag if you can," Lilly added.

Lee could hear twigs snapping and leaves crunching on the other end, "Why? What did you find?" Lee asked.

"We found the airfield, Air Force hangars. They're bound to have some weapons, maybe rifles, more pistols, ammunition, things we need. So just hurry, Carley and I are on the move," Lilly said shutting her end off.

Lee stretched and stood up yawning slightly, he glanced over at Glenn who had just seemed to enter a relaxed state. Sliding down the ladder of the RV he rested his arms on the left guard of the truck bed, "Hey Glenn?"

Glenn groaned and looked up at Lee, "It's six already?"

Lee shook his head, "No, but I got a call from Lilly, they found the Air Force base and she wants me to bring the truck so they can bring in a load of supplies."

Glenn squeezed his eyes shut at the dying sun and murmured, "You want me on guard duty, don't you?"

Lee put the revolver on Glenn's chest, "Be up there in five before Larry chews you out alright?"

Glenn nodded with his forearm over his face trying to savor the last few minutes of relaxation time before his six hour shift came about.

"One more thing," Lee added.

"What now?" Glenn half-way moaned.

"I'm going to need the truck, remember?" Lee asked.

"Five minutes," Glenn insisted.

Lee rolled his eyes with a smirk, "Alright, five minutes and I need the truck, okay?"

Glenn grunted and turned onto his side. Lee turned and walked to the upstairs portion of the motor inns, Clementine decided that she wanted room 204 because it had two beds and a desk so she could draw. Lee smiled as she had left one of her pictures on the desk, upon closer examination he gathered that it was a drawing of himself. He chuckled to himself and looked under his pillow for his knife that Lilly gave him.

It was her philosophy that one was always to carry a weapon, aside from the kids of course. Be it a firearm or knife everyone of age was required to carry a weapon. Moving out of the small room Lee walked out towards the corner room to his right.

Lee cringed as he opened door 208, the room had previously hosted two decaying corpses, both of which had committed suicide after being bitten. Lee had gathered after that night and after Larry's yelling that a bite could kill. Lee picked up the only duffel bag they had and, of course, it was stained with blood from the corpses. Lee had no idea why they needed a bag of this size, it wasn't like they had anything aside from the revolver.

Descending down the rusting metal staircase Lee noticed Clementine running to him, "Where are you going?" she asked looking up at him and squinting at the sun that laced the taller man in shadow.

"I'm just going help out Carley and Lilly, I won't be too long," Lee said crouching down eye level to Clementine.

The eight year old pursed her lips as if in thought, "Ok."

Lee pat her shoulder and stood up only to feel a tug on his fingers, "Lee?"

"Yes?"

"Be careful."

"I will, Clem."

Lee smirked turning away from Clementine and walking over to the truck. He was glad he had her, someone to protect aside from his brother. Being honest with himself during his restless night yesterday he had come to a realization that without them he would be nothing. Lee needed something to keep his mind on, to drive him forward. Lee felt he would never see how people could go on alone, he felt he never could.

Glenn was rubbing his eyes as Lee leaned against the truck, "You know I didn't get any sleep last night?" Glenn said trying to fight the drowsiness that longed to overtake him.

"Me either, maybe tonight," Lee said tossing the duffel bag into the cabin of the truck.

"Alright, well take care out there," Glenn said waving at Lee and moving to the RV.

Lee rounded the RV and exited from the right side exit facing the road, pulling left into the middle of the road Lee gave the truck some gas and was soon cruising down the two lane road at forty miles per hour. For some unknown reason Lee still went the speed limits on the road, he knew he would eventually break that habit.

Judging by the radio reports he heard over the radio, the government would collapse any day now and it wouldn't matter anyway. He didn't know why they don't just give up, the country had gone to shit and was overtaken by the dead. The only thing left they could do was get whatever scientists they had left working on a cure for this disease or whatever it was.

Lee was sure that was what they were already doing but they obviously haven't come up with anything. Slowing the vehicle, Lee turned onto Leighton street and looked for the grocery store Lilly told him about.

Soon enough, after avoiding bodies and various objects on the road, he spotted a grocery store by the name of Red's to his right. The glass windows were shattered and from inside the dark, dead room he could see the shelves were toppled over onto each other. Lee parked in the back of the store parking lot.

He locked the truck and slung the duffel bag over his back and leaned against the truck waiting for Carley and Lily to arrive. Lee kept a close watch for any walkers that may try to sneak up on him. Luckily for him, none of the decaying creatures were lurking close to his location. Maybe if there were some here Lily and Carley might have made too much noise going to the Air Force base that they drew them away? He doubted it, knowing Lily for a few years he had realized that she was a very careful woman and he also knew that she would likely keep Carley in check.

Minutes drug on before Lee heard the rustling in the bushes and Carley and Lily emerged. Their clothes sported small tears in the fabric.

"Y'all ok?" Lee asked pushing off the side of the truck and walked towards them.

Lilly stopped Lee with a raised hand as Carley placed her hands on her knees and began to breathe heavily.

"You got the bag, good," Lilly huffed out of breath.

"What the hell happened out there?" Lee asked looking past the two women and observed the tree line for walkers.

"We wanted to get here as soon as possible," Lilly said.

Carley walked forwards, "Anyway, we found some MRE's, water, and we're pretty sure there'll be some weapons in the barracks."

Lee nodded, "You guys want to sit here for a few minutes, catch your breath?"

"No, we should get going. Who knows who else might get those guns if we don't get all of them first," Lilly said motioning for Carley and Lee to follow her.

Lilly placed her hand on the right strap of her backpack as she spoke, "It's not too far away, and it's small too."

"What if there aren't even guns there anymore? Don't you think those guys would've up and left with all of their guns?" Lee asked as the sun was covered by clouds and the forest floor darkened.

"We were thinking the same thing," Carley started speaking and picked up her pace so she was walking next to Lee, "But when we were scoping out the place we saw several walkers who wore military clothes."

"Least we can do is check," Lilly said.

Lee put his hands in his pockets and followed Lilly as she led them through several twists and turns of the forest. After fifteen minutes of walking they arrived at the edge of the tree line.

The trio crouched down to avoid being spotted by the walkers who were ambling about just waiting for their next meal. Lilly whispered, "We checked the ATC tower over at the far side of the runway," she pointed to the large air traffic control tower at the end of the runway.

"The barracks are over there," Lilly continued and pointed to three square buildings on the left side of the runway.

"What about the hangars?" Lee asked shifting studying the three adjoining green hangars.

"Full of walkers, they seem to be attracted to something in them, whatever it is drew away several of the walkers that were here last time," Lilly explained.

"We should follow the tree line around to the back of the barracks so we don't attract any unwanted attention," Carley said.

"That's what I was thinking, let's go," Lilly ordered and began to sneak up to the first barrack.

The two windows on each side of a floor were shattered and the building's green paint was peeling revealing the gray concrete walls. The metal door was open and the door knob was bloody.

"Eyes open, knives out. Might be a walker," Lilly said.

Lee pulled his knife out and followed Lilly up the blood covered steps into the barrack. A right corridor led to a metallic stair case at the far end of the corridor. The gray tiled floor had blood splatters that looked fresh leading up to the stairs.

"I'll check it out," Lee took the duffel bag and handed it to Lilly, "You guys just search around down here.

Carley grabbed his wrist and gave him a stern look, "You yell if you need help."

Lee nodded and Carley let go, Lee could hear doors behind him being opened and items being moved as he walked up the stairs. He gripped the railing as he slipped on a small pool of blood that was dripping off the edge of the step to the floor below.

The air seemed to grow thinner on the second floor of the barracks. The sunlight filtered in through the two broken windows to Lee's left. Bloody footsteps led to a room at the end of the corridor. It's door was open and Lee could hear frantic breathing and the ripping of fabric.

He kept his knife up and was ready to strike as

he carefully sneaked to the open door. He peered in and saw a man sitting on the bottom bunk of a bunk bed. He appeared to be dressing his wounds, that is, until he turned to face Lee.

**AN:**

**Hello once again, guys. I'm sorry about my long period of inactivity. It was mostly do to me working on some plots for upcoming stories once I wrap this one up, writing ahead on this chapter, and a week of laziness. But I assure you I have this chapter and a few more stocked up so that should not happen again and you can expect the next chapter to be dropping around the coming weekend. And before I let you guys know I would just like to remind you that I am not abandoning this story and also any feedback is very helpful. And as always, I'll see you guys in the next chapter!**


	8. Chapter 8

**The Walking Dead: The World We Live In**

**Chapter Seven: ****Bleed Out**

* * *

The man on the bed jumped to his feet and produced an M9 pistol from his dark green jacket and whipped around to face Lee. He rapidly took aim at Lee only to be stopped by the wound on his side as it squirted blood do to the quick movement. He winced and the black gun fell onto the bed as the man covered the wound with two hands, grit his teeth and fell to his knees.

"Please," he gasped as his black rimmed glasses slipped lower on the bridge of his nose, "Don't kill me."

Lee quickly swiped the gun off of the bed and examined it for a moment to see that it was set to safety. So the man was either going to not shoot him, or he just made a deadly mistake.

"Carley, Lilly! There's a guy up here!" Lee yelled loudly enough to where he knew Carley and Lilly would hear and hopefully to where the walkers could not.

He heard frantic scuffing of footsteps and the clanking of the metal staircase. The man fell back onto his back with a thud against the wall, he groaned looking up at Lee with his light brown eyes.

Carley was the first to arrive in the room, "He's hurt."

Lilly was close in suit and observed the man, "Where did you get the gun from?"

For a second Lee gained eye contact with the man and he looked down at the gun in his hands. He knew if he told Lilly that the man had held him at gunpoint, hopefully just to be careful, that Lilly would leave him here to die.

"When I walked in, he was sitting against the wall like he is now and the gun was on the bed," Lee lied looking at Lilly.

As Lilly was registering Lee's response Carley spoke up, "Enough of this, he's hurt and needs help."

"What do you mean help? Carley, this man could be a threat. And we only have so many rations," Lilly countered.

Lee wasn't going to let Lilly deny this man of getting help, if they couldn't take him in, the least they could do was get him back on his feet again.

"Lilly, if you aren't going to help you can shut up and cover our backs," Lee said to her.

Lilly's face was distorted as she scowled at him and took the weapon from his hands and switched the safety off, "Fine, you've got until I clear the rest of this building and we're leaving."

Lee parted ways with Lilly and moved to Carley's side next to the man.

"What's your name?" Lee asked.

The man's eyelids fluttered open again and licked his dry lips, "Mark, my name is Mark," he winced slightly as he spoke.

"Okay," Carley took over, "My name is Carley and this is Lee. We're going to help you out, okay?"

Mark nodded.

"Lee is going to talk to you and I'm going to dress your wound, okay?"

Once again Mark nodded.

"What happened to you?" Lee asked as Carley moved his hand away from the wound on his left side.

Mark inhaled deeply before speaking, "I was helping this man I found in the forest, shared my food with him, gave him shelter," he sucked in air through his teeth at the pain of Carley cutting away at his jacket to reveal the horizontal gash on his side that squirted more blood, "And- as you can see he turned on me, tried to take my food and kill me."

"Shit," Carley swore under her breath as blood began to pour from his wound.

As she opened her pack for dressing Mark continued, "I stabbed him and left him for the walkers, I came here to try and patch myself up but I was too," he faltered succumbing to the blood loss, "You know. You saw."

He closed his eyes and his head dropped. Lee pat his head shoulder a few times, "Stay with me Mark!" he urged.

Carley out a hand on Lee's shoulder, "It's the blood loss. I stopped the bleeding for now and applied some gauze on the wound but we need to get him to Katjaa," she said as Mark began to gain consciousness again.

Before Lee could respond Lilly barged in again, "Alright I got everything but walkers are closing in, we've got to move."

"We can't leave Mark, he'll die," Lee insisted while peering out the window to see they had gained the walkers curiosity and they began to stumble towards the barracks.

Lilly shook her head, "Thats not our problem, Lee."

Mark gasped for air, "Please... I have food. In that bag over there," he struggled as he spoke.

"Lilly, please," Carley almost begged.

Lilly rolled her eyes, "Fine, but you better move your asses."

"Lee, you're going to have to carry him, I'll cover you," Carley instructed slinging her pack onto her back.

Lee nodded as Carley took the lead as Lee carried Mark bridal style out of the barracks and through the forest just narrowly avoiding the pack of walkers.

The clouds grew dark and rain threatened to pour as they slowed to a tired out walk.

"This isn't a good idea," Lilly muttered to Lee as she watched the group's front.

Carley scoffed at Lilly's comment, "Where's your humanity, Lilly? This man needs out help."

"He's also a liability, Carley," Lilly said without meeting the woman's eyes.

Lee grit his teeth, "What about your father? Don't you think he's a liability, you know with his heart attacks and all?" he spat with venom.

Carley touched Lee's elbow and whispered a quiet 'don't'.

The first few drops of precipitation fell through the breaks in the trees as Lilly stopped cold and gripped the hunting rifle tightly until her knuckles whitened.

"This isn't about my father," she growled trying to contain her temper.

Lee prodded her more without regards of her yelling at him and attacking walkers.

"Why not? If you can be so willing to throw this man's life away then why not your father, too? It's only fair," he shrugged, as much as he could shrug while carrying Mark's limp body.

Lilly whipped around and jabbed a long finger at Lee, with a fire in her eyes she snapped, "Listen here you son of a bitch-"

Carley pushed the two apart, "Enough!" she snapped and looked at the two angrily, "You want to draw the walkers? That's what I thought, now shut up and let's go."

Lilly grit her teeth angrily as though she were trying to grind layers of her teeth off. Lee, on the other hand, appeared clam and collected aside from the look of anger that his eyes bore for Lilly.

"Fine," Lilly huffed and spun around on her heal and heightened her pace to get to the truck.

Carley gave Lee a disappointed look and walked ahead. Lee closed his eyes and took a deep breath before moving on with his small group.

Now the fine drops of rain were falling quickly, the dark, cloudy sky dared to unleash a storm any minute now causing the survivors to quicken their pace to get to the truck. Lee could tell by the bends in the path they were in that they were close to the truck, and more importantly, close to getting Mark some help.

And sure enough they arrived at the truck a few minutes later. "I'm riding in the back," Lilly said pushing past Lee and Carley and jumping into the bed of the pick up.

Carley frowned at Lilly, "Open the the passenger's side so I can get him in," Lee said to Carley.

The former news reporter nodded at him and opened the blue door of the truck. Lee pulled Mark's upper body upwards and slid him into the middle seat. As he began to slump towards the open door Carley caught his shoulder with a grunt, "I'll make sure he doesn't start to bleed again, you drive."

Lee closed the door for Carley as she got herself and Mark situated in the cabin of the truck. Lee scratched the stubble on his face that was slowly beginning to grow into a beard as he walked around the front of the blue truck to the driver's seat.

Lee twisted the keys and the ignition was echoed by Mark's shallow breathing. Lee looked worriedly at the survivor who's head was lolled against Carley's shoulder.

Turning on the windshield wipers he asked Carley a question, "Do you think he's going to make it?"

Carley pursed her full, pink lips in thought then looked at Lee with that determined look of hers, "Most likely. I think Katjaa will be able to get him back on his feet again, it might just take some time."

Lee looked up at the rear view mirror as he gave the accelerator another gradual push, "Do you think Lilly would let him stay?"

"It's not her decision, it should be the group's decision," Carley said while applying pressure to Mark's dressings.

The cabin grew silent again the only sounds audible were the pelting of the rain and Mark's breathing. Lee sighed, "So, you said you were a reporter right?"

Carley nodded, "Yeah, why?"

"Just wondering what you- uh... reported on," Lee said avoiding Carley's question gaze.

"Well the most recent thing I've worked on, which was under development until everything went to shit, was trying to uncover the secret behind BioTech," she said proudly.

Lee scrunched his nose up questioningly, "what do you mean by secret?"

"I had a theory, I kind of liked to call it the BioTech Theory," Lee chuckled slightly causing Carley to smile shyly, "Anyway, I was doing research on them. Reading their articles about human advancement."

"You mean that billion dollar investment on that little pressure launcher on their lightning rod-"

Carley interrupted him, "It's not the pressure launcher that costed that much, it was what was in the pressure launcher. Now, I had a few inside sources and the best that they could tell me was that it was some sort of vitamin-"

"And the pressure launcher was to disperse it over the city?" Lee asked.

"Yes, but it only covered New York City so I did some digging to see if they tested it anywhere else," Carley started.

"Did they?" Lee asked like a child listening to a story his parents were telling him.

"Yes, or at least I think they did. You see, they're a multi billion dollar company so obviously they had towers everywhere and satellites too. I never got the physical logs from my source, but they were able to tell me that several satellites were being worked on less than a week of them manufacturing and equipping the pressure launcher with the vitamin. And also-"

Lee turned back onto the road that the motor inn was located as Mark's wound began to bleed again.

"Shit!" Carley cursed and began to redress the wound, "Come find me later and I'll tell you more. If you're still interested, of course."

Lee nodded eagerly, "Yeah, definitely."

Carley smiled at him and then frowned again as she applied more pressure to the laceration.

Lee honked the horn twice as he drove onto the road where the motor inn was located. A soaking Glenn slid off of the top of the RV and moved to the finished dumpster gates to open them. Lee skidded to a halt in the parking lot and jumped out, "Get Katjaa! We've got wounded!" he said frantically to the much younger man.

The Korean-American raced up the metallic staircase as Lilly shouted at him, "I'll cover your shift!"

Lee went to help Carley who was tending to Mark's wound as Katjaa burst out of her family's room with Glenn got on her heels.

"The gate, Lee!" Carley yelled over the thunder.

The weather was worsening, it felt like it was night time now. The clouds were black and menacing, the storm had arrived and brought heavy rain and earth shaking thunder with it. Lightning lit up the growing puddles of rain that was distorting the world' reflection because of the rain. Lee pushed the makeshift gate back into place as another volley of lightning tore through the dark sky.

"We've got walkers!" Lilly yelled from atop the RV.

Lee whipped around and saw several wet, decaying walker's ambling towards him. An eyeless walker's head was blown off by Lilly's hunting rifle, "Here!" she shouted throwing down Mark's pistol, "Make those shots count!"

Kenny and Larry rushed to the gates on the far side of the Travelier's parking lot as Bud rushed to help Lee. Lee could also see Glenn racing back upstairs and ushering the kids back into a room.

Bud pulled out Lee's revolver and began firing at the walkers with his brother. Glancing at Lilly once again he could see she was tossing down the duffel bag to Kenny and Larry, soon after he heard gunfire.

Lee took down ten walker's before the weapon clicked, "Fuck, I'm out!"

The revolver Bud was using soon ran out of ammunition and several walkers were closing in, "Let them get close and we'll get 'em with our knives!" Bud shouted as thunder boomed.

They let three walkers get close as Lilly dropped the stragglers at the tree line. Bud took the one on the right as Lee moved and stabbed the walker through the two lines of barbed wire.

He didn't see the other one that was lurking beside the dumpster until Bud yelled, "Lee! Watch out!"

It grabbed at Lee's left arm forcing it to itself and opened its mutilated mouth and moved to Lee's exposed wrist. He could feel its hot breath and teeth on his wrist before his face was coated in dark red blood.

"Fuck!" Bud yelled pulling Lee back.

They had repelled the walkers now, Lilly fired upon the remaining few and none followed after. Lee's wrist was burning now. The pain was sharp and quick, only hurting every few seconds.

The thunder and lightning seemed to diminish as did his group mates shouting and running towards Mark. Lee grew silent as he looked down at his wrist and saw two thin, bloody lines.

**AN:**

**Hello once again guys. I hope you all enjoy this chapter as much as I did writing it. I want to thank all of you once again for your continued support of this story. And I would also like to let you guys know that I have an estimate number of chapters for this story and it falls around thirty to forty or perhaps even fifty. So buckle up because it's going to be a long, and hopefully, enjoyable ride for you guys. And as always, I'll see you guys in the next chapter! (edited the final line as not to cause confusion)**


	9. Chapter 9

**The Walking Dead: The World We Live In**

**Chapter 8: Tip of the Spear**

* * *

Lee sat on the edge of his bed as Katjaa sat in front of him holding his arm in her hands.

"I told Kenny that the barbed wire wasn't necessary, but of course, he didn't listen. He's lucky you didn't hit a vein," Katjaa said shaking her head as she wrapped the pristine white gauze around Lee's bloodied, raw wrist.

"It'll keep out any stray walkers, or people," Lee said with a shrug.

Katjaa sighed, her light blue eyes exhausted after working on Mark for the past few hours.

"So how's Mark?" Lee asked standing up and balling his fist up testing the pain which had greatly subsided.

Katjaa pushed the chair back under the desk and put her hands in her pockets walking outside onto the balcony with Lee, "He's stable, thank God. If you three hadn't found him-" her words drifted off as she stared at the light rain that was barely illuminated by the moon.

Lee squeezed Katjaa's shoulder supportively, "You did great, without you he would be dead," Lee said smiling proudly at the shorter woman.

Katjaa gave a tired smile in return, "Thank you Lee. I just hope we have enough supplies to last us and Mark, because he will need extra. At least for another week. I want to make sure his body regenerates all of the blood he lost and the best way to do that is to keep him well fed and watered."

Lee chuckled slightly and leaned against the damp railing, "You act like he's a plant."

Katjaa laughed for a moment, "You know what I mean."

Smiling, Lee nodded at her.

Katjaa sighed, "Well, I should head back over to Mark. Make sure he's settled to slew the night."

Katjaa began to walk off but turned around after a few seconds, "I almost forgot, your girl is still with Kenny, Glenn, and Duck."

Lee nodded and thanked the woman before he walked into his room and unbuttoned his navy blue button up shirt and tossing it into his bed. He rolled his white sleeves up neatly and walked out onto the balcony once more. Lilly still sat atop the RV, she was soaking but didn't appear to care, she still watched the tree line intently even when Larry had asked her several times to come down.

Lee stuck his hands in his pockets as he neared Kenny and Katjaa's room. He could practically see the large sound waves of Kenny's voice bouncing off of the walls, "Atlanta? You crazy kid?!"

Lee leaned against the wooden door frame and observed the four. Duck was spinning around on the desk chair stuffing his face with a pudding cup as Kenny and Glenn sat opposite of each other on the two double beds in the room. Clementine sat next to Glenn nibbling on a chocolate chip cookie until she saw Lee. She smiled as her hazel eyes lit up, "Hey Lee!"

Lee hugged Clementine, "You want a cookie? Carley gave me a few earlier, she said to save some for you."

Lee smiled at her, "No thank you, sweet pea. You can have them."

Clementine smiled, "Okay."

She sat atop the double bed next to Glenn once more. Lee sat himself beside Kenny, "So what's all the fuss about, guys?"

Kenny pointed at Glenn, "This one wants to go into Atlanta tomorrow-"

"Alone, I just want to scavenge the outskirts for supplies is all," Glenn cut Kenny off.

Kenny ran his hand through his uncapped black hair, "Alls I'm saying is that it's foolish. You can't go getting yourself killed for a box of Kleenex or somethin'."

"Yeah, I know and I'm fast. I'll take the duffel bag with me so I can get as much as I can. I'll take the car, too. Faster and easier to hide, also-"

Kenny stopped him with a raised hand, "You should just come with Bud and I tomorrow into Macon. There are still plenty of supplies there too."

"Look, all I'm saying is that I can go in get thins we need and you guys can be like the 'B Team in Macon-"

Kenny scoffed at being put on a B Team, "I'm about to B-Team my foot up your ass in a damn minute if you-"

"Up his what dad?" Duck asked, mouth coated with chocolate pudding.

"That's a swear," Clementine scolded looking up from her chocolate chip and M&M cookie.

Lee laughed as Kenny reluctantly apologized to the eight year old, "So Lee, what do you think?" Glenn asked.

"Well if you think you can make it, go 'head. I'm sure Ken and Bud can hold their own right?" Lee asked Kenny.

Kenny rolled his eyes, "That's easy for you to say, pal. You'll be staying here, nice and cozy, not in Macon with us. You know, trying not to die."

Lee smirked and looked at Clementine, "I was actually thinking about going down to the lake Lilly and Carley had marked on the map and getting us some fresh water and fish."

Kenny sighed, "You can come with me next time," Lee laughed.

Kenny scoffed, "Oh I will, that way you won't come back with nothing when you're with me," Kenny joked.

"You hear that, Clem?" Lee asked the little girl, "We're going to show Kenny tomorrow, huh? We'll show him we're better at fishing than he is!"

"Yeah, we'll catch a thousand!" she said excitedly causing the three adults to laugh.

"Please do, darlin'. Maybe then Lilly will pull that stick out of her ass-"

"Swear."

"Force of habit."

Clementine shook her head and yawned tiredly, the melodic pelting of the rain left Lee tired as well. He stood up, "Alright Ken, Glenn, Duck, you guys have a good night. Clem and I are going to retire for the night."

"Night Lee," Kenny said lying back on his bed and placing his forearm over his eyes.

Glenn got up and followed Lee and Clementine outside, "Yeah, I should get some sleep too, I've got a big day ahead. Speaking of, do you need anything while I'm gone?"

Lee thought for a second, "Maybe some razors and shaving cream?" Lee said rubbing his growing beard, "Oh and get some notebooks and colors for the kids too."

"Got it, goodnight guys," Glenn waved and headed off to his room.

Clementine yawned once more, "C'mon kiddo, let's go get some shut eye," he said ushering the girl to their room.

* * *

"Can I come? Can I come?" an eager Duck asked Lee.

Lee pursed his lips and looked to Katjaa who nodded at Lee, "Yeah, sure why not. Come on."

Duck pumped a victorious fist in the air and Clementine shook her head almost as if in embarrassment. Lee smiled and yelled up at Carley, "We're heading out!"

"I can see that!" she yelled back.

Kenny, who was loading he and Bud's truck up with supplies, looked up and yelled up at Carley, "Oh no! We must follow all rules and regulations in the prison camp of Lilly!"

Larry, who was helping Katjaa prepare first aid kits to place around the lot and in every vehicle growled at Kenny, "You shut your useless fucking mouth!"

"Oh, fuck you!" Kenny replied hotly and angrily continued his work.

Lee shook his head, "Alright guys, let's go."

Lee pushed open the gates and closed them as soon as the kids were out and into the sidewalk. Lee gestured for the kids to follow him across the street and into the tree line. Lee donned his navy blue button up shirt again when he woke up in the morning, he also changed the gauze again. The wound had long since stopped bleeding so he put a light layer of gauze over the wound for the day.

The mud on the forest floor was molded by his footsteps and the footsteps of the two children behind him.

"So we're going fishing?" Clementine asked, her soft voice barely carrying to his ears.

He turned around and nodded at her and lifted the red ice chest up that he had in his right hand.

"Well where's the rods?" Duck asked jumping and balancing on tree roots.

"Well we don't have any and we're not in the position to wait around for a full meal, so- well, I'll show you when we get there. Shouldn't be too long now," Lee said observing the map, from the second fork in the marked path he could tell they were very close.

"I should have brought my tennis shoes," Clementine sighed as mud coated her black ones.

Duck smirked, "But the mud is awesome!"

"That's because you're a boy!" Clementine accused.

"You don't have to be a boy to enjoy mud, Clementine," he countered.

Lee could hear the water filtering through rocks and emptying into a two foot drop into the river, "Hey kids, we're here!"

Lee placed the ice chest down on a towel he brought with him and took out the three long spears he had in his brown pack.

"We're going to fish with sticks?" Duck asked confused.

"These aren't just sticks, Duck. They're- come on, fill in the blank," Lee coaxed the boy who's head was tilted sideways in thought like a confused dog.

"A sharp stick?"

"No, Duck, this is a spear," Lee said gesturing to the knife sharpened point.

Duck remained confused and scratched his head, "How are you going to fish with that?"

Before Lee could speak Clementine interrupted, "I think you have to stab the fish and then put them in the ice chest, right Lee?"

Lee smiled affectionately, "Exactly! Good thinking, Clem!" he praised.

"Well, I wanna spear some fish!" Duck said his excitement sky high once again.

"In a minute. First, I want to show you how to catch the fish," Lee led the trio to the edge of the crystal clear river.

A cool rush raced up his legs as he got a few feet into the water, the kids close behind. He spotted a gray fish caught in the stream and trying to use the current to its advantage.

"You just have to lead them," he trailed off locking his eyes onto his prey and raising the spear with two hands, "And strike ahead of their path!" he said quickly as he drove the spear down into the gray fish.

Lifting it up and out of the water he received applause from the two kids as the gray fish flipped its wet tail about.

"Think you can do that, Duck?" Lee asked handing the spear to him and dropping the fish in the ice chest which had a very thin layer of ice inside.

"Sure!" he beamed taking the spear from Lee.

"How about you, Clem?" Lee asked the girl.

Clementine gazed at the spear unsure of herself but then nodded determinately at Lee. She picked it up and weighed it in her small hands, "Heavy?" Lee asked.

"Nuh uh," Clementine said walking into the water with the spear.

She jabbed at one immediately and missed, "Aw, dang it," she pouted disappointedly.

Lee stood behind her as she struck at another fish and, again, missed. Lee put a hand on her shoulder and positioned her hands properly in the spear and held her in the proper position, he then pointed at a fish who was approaching the two foot drop into the lake.

"Watch him," Lee said, and just like that, Clementine's gaze and undivided attention was on that fish.

It was about ten feet from Clementine now, "Raise it," Lee commanded.

She raised the spear above the fish's path and as soon as it was right about to pass under it Clementine sent the edge of the spear down at it. The sound of would penetrating scales bounced around his eardrums as a small area around the speared fish had been contaminated with blood that was being carried off by the current.

"I did it! I got it!" Clementine exclaimed happily.

"I knew you would, Clem!" Lee hugged Clementine and placed the third fish, seeing as Duck had already caught one, into the ice chest.

"You guys look like you can handle this, I'm going to go look around for a bit. You Hillary if you need anything okay?" Lee instructed.

Duck and Clementine were laughing in between attempting to catch fish, they also splashed each other with the water. Lee smiled and headed down the river bed.

After he had gone out of sight of Clementine and Duck he saw a large dip in the river. It was a small waterfall emptying into an even larger river. There seemed to be a decent sized camp on the other side of the river. Lee observed the three large tents looking for any sign of activity in the camp.

The torn fabric of the tents rippled in the wind as Lee looked over the camp. There were two cars there, both looking abandoned. One was a white pickup truck and parallel to it was a gray car with bullet holes plastered into the windshield. Lee squinted his eyes at the scene trying to see if anyone or anything was nearby, but there was nothing. It was desolate.

Lee made a mental note to go check it out later with a few of his group mates, but for now he had to go back and check on Clementine and Duck. Lee made the short walk back to the two who were sitting on too of the ice chest and were talking.

"Hey guys, why'd you stop?" Lee asked looking at the two sticks that were jabbed into the mud.

"There aren't any more fish coming this way, we haven't seen any in a little while. But we caught about seven more!" Duck stated proudly.

"Well that's good," Lee smiled and picked up the three spears.

"We should head on back to camp then," he picked up the ice chest, "Maybe there'll be more tomorrow?"

The trio made the fifteen minute trip back to the motor inn in silence. Aside from Duck, he didn't stop point things out the entire trip back.

"They're back!" Carley yelled down at the people on the other side of the makeshift gate.

It was Lilly who opened the gate, "How many did you guys catch?"

"Seven!" Duck piped up, practically skipping into the parking lot.

"Ten altogether," Lee said walking in with Clementine by his side.

Lilly nodded taking the ice chest from him, "I'm going to see if I can get more ice, we can cook five tonight."

"Sounds good to me," Lee said.

Clementine looked up at me, "How's Mark, Lee?"

Lee shrugged, "I'm not sure, but I'm confident he'll be just fine," Lee assured the girl.

Clementine nodded, "But I was just about to go check on him, do you want to come with me?" Lee asked.

"Sure," she said following Lee closely as he walked across the parking lot to the slightly opened door just behind the stairs.

Duck and Katjaa were already inside, "Duckie, why don't you go ask Lilly for those syringes, please?" Katjaa asked her son.

"Oh, hello Lee, Clementine," Katjaa smiled at Clementine as Duck half sprinted out of the room.

"How's he doing?" Lee asked sitting down on a brown, plastic chair

Clementine leaned against the doorframe and looked at Mark's sleeping figure.

"He's much more stable than yesterday. I redressed and stitched his wound this morning, he woke up not too long after that and was able to eat," Katjaa said gesturing to the small, empty paper plate.

Lee bit his bottom lip, "So he's been up kind of off and on?"

Katjaa nodded as Duck walked in with a plastic bag that held two syringes, "Thank you Duckie, why don't you and Clementine go play outside for a bit?"

"Sure, mom. Come on Clem, you know Mark piloted fighter jets? He was telling me this story and it was so cool!" Duck began explaining the story excitedly as the two kids walked outside.

"That boy is always excited for something," Katjaa laughed.

"Oh, I've noticed," Lee said standing up and stretching in the sunlight that pushed its way through the open door.

"Can you lift his sleeve up while I prepare his medicine?" Katjaa asked.

"Sure, what's it for?" Lee asked as he rolled up Mark's long sleeved green jacket.

As Katjaa searched for a vein she spoke, "He was running a fever this morning before he woke up and his laceration was beginning to look inflamed so I'm giving him this shot to fight any infection that might have gotten in."

"Ah, I've got it," Lee said.

Lee put his hands in his pockets and looked out at the RV which Carley was sitting upon and frequently checking her watch, "Well I've got watch duty, so I better head on out."

"Sure, Lee," Katjaa said absently, all of her attention was treating Mark.

Lee walked outside and saw Clementine and Duck playing hide and seek, he more so saw Clementine trying to look for Duck. Clementine walked to Lee dejectedly, "You looking for Duck, Clementine?" Lee asked getting eye level to her.

"Yes, but I can't find him anywhere," she said pouting slightly.

Lee grinned and looked over at the overturned cardboard box near the far wall, "Maybe you should check under there," Lee suggested putting a hand on Clementine's shoulder and pointing at the box.

Clementine with a devious smile thanked Lee and skipped over to the box. Lee stayed put watching her, "I think I'm just going to sit heeereee," Clementine exaggerated.

The card board box sputtered, "NO NO PLEASE DO NOT DO THAT!"

Clementine pulled the box off of Duck's crouched form, "I found you!" she chirped proudly.

"Aw man," he moaned getting up.

Lee laughed to himself as he climbed up the RV, "Hey Car, you about ready for a nap?" Lee asked standing behind her.

"Car? Pet name?" she asked turning her head to face him smiling at his embarrassment.

Lee scratched the back of his head, "Well, no I just- I didn't feel like saying Carley, okay?"

"Woah there big guy, I didn't say anything was wrong with it," she giggled getting up.

She placed the scopes rifle into his hands, "Glenn said he should be back in two hours and Kenny and Bud in one, okay?"

"Yes ma'am," Lee said.

Carley rolled her chocolate brown orbs, "Don't 'yes ma'am' me, makes me feel old."

"You don't look a day over twenty-five," Lee said sitting down on the plastic chair.

He could hear Carley scoff as she went down the ladder, "You're too sweet," she said sarcastically.

Lee leaned his head back as the sun washed over him and thought, 'Just six hours and I'm done.'

**AN:**

**Hello once again ladies and gents! I see we've almost hit the double digits on the chapter count! And I just want to let you all know there is a very special event coming up in Chapter 10 (It'll be marked Chapter 9: The Red Zone, but nevertheless it's still the tenth in this story!). Luke Voice: I say we've got thirty- forty more chapters until we reach the finale, and boy oh boy have I got some things for you guys! But on a serious note, I really appreciate all of the positive feedback I've been getting on this story. Thank all of you so much, and I'll see you in the next chapter!**


	10. Chapter 10

**The Walking Dead: The World We Live In**

**Chapter 9: Sky Fall**

* * *

"Hey Ken, you need some help setting that awning up?" Lee asked the commercial fisherman who seemed to have been struggling with the olive green awning.

Kenny looked up and wiped the sweat from his brow, "Nah, I've just about got it, but thanks though."

"Sure thing, pal," Lee said leaning back in the chair atop the RV.

It had been roughly two weeks since Lee had taken the kids to go spear fishing in the stream and the group has taken two trips over there since. They now had a decent storage of food and were able to be a little more generous with the rations. They were even able to allow a few snacks every once in a while.

Lee was just finishing his shift on watch duty up, he had about five more minutes sitting up there and then Larry would relieve him until midnight. At midnight Mark, who was healing up nicely and adjusting to their way of living, would take his first shift until six in the morning. They would cycle out four times in a twenty four hour period, each person would have a six hour watch duty and would be relieved by the next person. It was both simple and effective, it was also something everyone had agreed upon.

The former history professor had chalked down two walker sightings and one kill. The walkers were thinning out, probably due to the military bombings just before the federal government had officially collapsed a week ago. Lee couldn't imagine how it was in cities like in Atlanta or New York. The streets must have been infected, he figured this would be a good place to hide out until a cure was developed- if that was ever to happen.

Lee pulled the rifle out one last time as he saw Larry walking over to him. Lee did one last scan of the red and orange trees, he put the rifle down feeling the RV lean to one side as Larry hoisted himself up.

Lee had nothing to say to Larry who just forcefully pushed his way past Lee and sat down on the chair. Lee slid down the silver ladder and walked past Kenny who had finally set the awning up. Lee put his hands in his jeans pockets, which he finally got a new pair of thanks to Glenn, and walked over into Mark's room.

"Hey Lee," Mark casually greeted from his seat on his desk turned workbench.

He spun around in his black office chair, "I hope you don't mind, but I took the liberty of re finishing the wood on your rifle after I replaced the lenses on the scope."

"Thank you Mark," Lee said taking the gun from Mark's extended hands.

Mark held up his index finger, "But wait, there's more," he said imitating a cheesy commercial voice.

He pulled out Lee's brown backpack and pointed to a metal piece on the side, "Instead of using the strap you can use the clip I put on the side of the gun and just have it clipped to the side of your pack."

Lee smiled at Mark, "Thanks man, I really appreciate it."

Mark wiped his black frames glasses and shook his head, "No problem, anything I can do to help out."

Lee sat down on the edge of Mark's messy bed and drug his brown running shoes over the blue carpet, "You don't have to act like an outsider, Mark. You've earned your keep, here. And don't worry about Larry, he really is just an asshole."

Mark snickered slightly, "Thank you, Lee."

Lee patted Mark's shoulder as he gets up, "You need anything, you just let anyone of us know, alright?"

Mark nodded, "Sure."

Lee began to walk out of the room before Mark stopped him, "Hey Lee?"

"Yeah, buddy?" Lee asked stopping at the door frame.

"You know your girl is quite the artist? She drew a picture of me in a jet," Mark smiled showing Lee Clementine's picture.

Lee took hold of it and smiled at Clementine's artwork. It was a jet flying through the air with a smiling Mark inside the cockpit, the background was a blue sky, some clouds, and a large sun in the top right corner.

"Yeah, she drew a picture of her and I too, it never leaves my side," Lee smiled and taps his chest pocket as he gave Mark's picture back.

Lee pulled the picture out and showed it to Mark, who grinned, "You really do have the next Picasso with you."

Lee grinned and put the picture back in his chest pocket. He had dressed differently today, making use of the two changes of clothes Glenn gave everyone. Lee wore a short sleeved gray button up shirt accompanied by a long sleeved white shirt underneath and his jeans.

"Alright Mark, you take care okay?"

"Absolutely, you too Lee," Mark said with a friendly smile as he turned back around and got back to work.

Lee slung the pack over his back and clipped the gun to it. It kept the gun sturdy as Lee walked and was easily accessible. The former professor jogged upstairs and to his room where Clementine was lying down on her bed putting something in a box, as she heard Lee open the door she quickly chucked it under her bed.

"Hey, Clem," Lee greeted walking to his bed and opening the night stand drawer and pulling out his revolver and an extra six bullets.

"You're leaving already?" Clementine asked.

"Yeah, but don't worry, Carley said she was going to stay with you until Glenn and I are back. And I promise you, two hours and I'm back, okay?" Lee promised sitting next to Clementine.

"Okay," she sighed and hugged Lee tightly, "Be careful, okay?"

"I'm always careful, Clem," Lee said tapping the bridge of her hat causing her to giggle.

"Okay, Lee," she said.

Glenn arrived at the doorway fully armed and ready to go, "You about ready, man?"

"Yeah, I'm ready. I'll be back soon, Clem," Lee said to the girl.

Lee followed Glenn to the stairs where Carley was coming up, "Oh hey, leaving so soon?" Carley asked.

"Yeah, are you sure you don't mind watching Clementine? Because I'm sure I can get Bud to-"

"No worries Lee, I don't mind at all," Carley said reassuring Lee.

"Okay, thanks. I won't be long, I promise," he said walking down the stairs with Glenn.

"You've got the list?" Lee asked Glenn as they got in the pizza delivery vehicle.

Bud opens the door for them as Glenn accelerates out of their camp and hands a wrinkled piece of paper to Lee. Lee snickers silently to himself looking at the rear view mirror and seeing foam dice flop around rapidly as Glenn speeds through the streets.

'_Okay_,' Lee thinks to himself,_ 'Canned food, water, 1/4 inch nails, brake fluid, and two cases of water.'_

"Not too much today?" Lee asked putting the list in his pocket.

Glenn shook his head, "Nah, we've been doing pretty well for ourselves."

Lee nodded looking at the line trees whipping past them, "So how do you handle these Atlanta runs?" Lee asked turning to look at Glenn.

Glenn shrugged, "I just try to get in and out without much hassle, the walkers in the streets are packed so I try to keep to the rooftops."

"Where are we going, you know, exactly?" Lee asked.

"The Bank of America. I heard there was a camp over there, abandoned, of course. But it was where the military stragglers held out after the bombings. They're probably dead now and we can find most of what we need there and then go around to the auto shop about a block away," Glenn explained.

"So there's probably going to be more gear?"

"Yeah, probably a lot."

Nodding his head, Lee looked over the trees and saw several tips of skyscrapers sticking out. He never could have lived in the city, he felt life in the city was too fast for him. He was the type of person that liked to take his time, so he always stuck to the suburbs.

For the rest of the ride into Atlanta, Lee tried to relax and take a quick nap. As the dying sunlight washed over and soothingly warmed his body Glenn cut the ignition and shook him, "Hey Lee, wake up man, we're here," oh the nostalgia.

Lee groaned opening the car door and dragging his pack out of the car. He slipped the large brown pack over his back and shut the car door. The sun was receding rapidly now, it just barely shown through the quarantine fence ahead and the row of brick and concrete buildings.

Lee could see a river of walkers through the links of the fence moving down the street, luckily for them the walkers were going the opposite direction.

"Maybe we can make it to the auto shop before the bank, come on Lee," Glenn said over his shoulder and jogging down the length of the fence.

Lee jogged after the Korean-American until they reached a hole in the bottom of the fence. Past that whole was an alleyway littered with trash and two dumpsters. Glenn crouch walked through the whole and explained, "I made this the first time I came down here so that I would be away from the dead and also because it's a helluva lot easier than scaling it."

Lee grunted in understanding as he looked around the desolate streets filled with burnt out cars and charred bodies. Glenn jogged to the alleyway with Lee hot on his trail, "Hand me that ladder would you?" he asked pointing to the other side of the alley as he climbed to the top of the dumpster.

Lee handed the man the red ladder and Glenn placed it against the fire escape two stories above them, "This is the abandoned apartment building I use to get to the rooftops, from there we can get a better view of the walkers near our points of interest."

"Come on up," he called down as quietly as possible to Lee.

Lee boosted himself on top of the dumpster and climbed up the red ladder which he felt, always in the back of his mind, that it would collapse on him. Glenn pulled him up as Lee reached the top of the ladder, "Come on, let's keep going," Glenn said walking up the stairs of the fire escape.

Within four or so minutes they reached the fifteenth and final building of the beige bricked apartment building. Lee's thighs burned as he reached the fifteenth floor and there he finally realized why Glenn was so fit. The duo walked to the very edge of the roof, "Look over there,"

Lee pointed down the road where the walkers were clumping up at, "Is that a tank?"

Glenn nodded, "Yeah, I'm telling you, the military was serious about this. Of course, you know, until they were eradicated completely."

"You don't honestly think they're all gone do you?" Lee asked crossing his arms as a inquisitive look took form on his face.

Glenn shrugged, "I really don't know, but they sure as hell aren't here anymore. I mean, I guess I would have to say there are survivors that were military but you just never know."

"Yeah," Lee agreed dropping his arms to his sides, "So where is this hardware store of yours?"

Glenn pointed to the left of them far away down the street, which happened to be walker free. Maybe it would be safe for them after all. Lee stepped off of the very edge of the roof's two foot incline onto what he felt was more solid ground. He looked one last time at the tank and what appeared to be the remains of a horse on the ground near it and the agitated walkers. He shook his head with a sigh and followed Glenn hoping the poor bastard inside of the tank had made it.

* * *

"Hey, Lee. Hardware store is just up ahead," Glenn said from ahead of Lee on the rooftops.

Lee was pretty sure they were on the rooftop of an abandoned makeshift camp as there were old torn up sleeping bags and shattered bottles of booze littering a corner of the rather spotless rooftop. Lee quickened his pace to catch up with his friend who was standing on the edge of the flat rooftop, "You think you can make this descent or do you want to just go through the building?" Glenn asked pointing to the sturdy metal drainage pipe.

They were only five stories up now and Lee was confident in his physical abilities that he had slowly began to build up since the previous weeks, "Yeah, I've got it."

"You sure? I don't want you to fall," Glenn questioned worriedly again.

"Yes, Glenn. I'm good," Lee assured the man.

"Okay, let's go then." Glenn said going to sit on the edge of the building and positioning himself on the pipe.

Lee sat on the edge of the building and watched Glenn get down to the alleyway. Glenn motioned for Lee to climb down the pipe and meet up with him. Lee got onto the pipe and immediately found his entire body straining to hang on so he did the only thing he could think of, he let himself slide down. As he was almost down to street level he held a tight grip on the pipe and slowed himself down to a halt on street level.

"Hey, up there!" Glenn hissed to a couple of walkers stalking about the front entrance of the auto shop.

Several abandoned cars lined the litter strewn streets leading up to the auto shop. The two walkers ambled around, occasionally growling at a passing piece of paper or a plastic bag caught in the wind. One was facing towards Lee and Glenn, it had a stringy red beard and about six bullet holes in its red and black Falcons shirt. His buddy was walking through the line of cars as though it was a police officer checking the windows of cars for troublemakers.

"Alright, I'll get the one that's walking, you can have the easy part," Glenn said starting to sneak ahead before Lee grabbed his arm, "Oh no buddy boy, I haven't been on a run in a while, he's mine," Lee countered.

"Fine, old man, but don't come crying to me when he gets too tough for you," Glenn joked knowing full well Lee could take on two of them easily even on a bad day.

Lee scoffed standing up and walking casually in front if Glenn, "I just so happen to be thirty seven years _young_."

Glenn laughed jabbing the sitting walker through the forehead with his knife and then groaning in disgust as the blood spewed onto his hands, "You sound just like my grandmother!"

Lee scoffed as the walker turned around and stumbled hungrily to Lee, growling loudly in the process. Lee grabbed it by the shoulders and threw it into the ground behind him before brutally bashing its head in with his shoes.

"Ugh, got that one," Lee said, the edges of his mouth curved downwards into the ground as the putrid smell of decaying skin and copper scented blood rose into his flared nostrils.

Glen walked around the cars looking around quickly to see if any other walkers had followed the noise of cracked skulls and low banter. Luckily for the fellow survivors, none had seen the need to take interest them and went about their business of stumbling about and growling angrily at any noise that dare invaded their range of hearing.

A tumbled over military jeep had been the first to enter the auto shop, it was crashed in its side on the far white tiled wall of the shop. It had also appeared to take several shelves with it leaving a mixture of radiator cleaner and oil on the floor leaving it a slick tripping hazard.

"I'll go look for the nails, see if you can find that brake fluid," Lee told Glenn who gave Lee a quick nod and moved to tread carefully through the chemical mixture on the scratched cement floor.

Lee blew air through his slightly closed, chapped lips as he could see in the dying, golden sunlight particles of dust and ash floating through the air. Lee checked first the counter and found several nice pairs of working gloves that he deposited in his brown pack. Slinging it over his broad shoulders and onto his back he walked over to the aisle where nails used to be sold.

Every shelf had collapsed on each other so for a few minutes Lee had to sift through several boxes of nails until he could find a small box of 1/4 inch nails and by that time Glenn was standing behind him shining his head torch over the small print red boxes.

"Alright, you found the break fluid?" Lee asked getting up and putting two boxes of nails in his pack.

"Yeah, I've got it. The bank should be about a ten minute walk from here. You ready to go?" Glenn asked as Lee readjusted the straps on his pack.

"Yeah, let's go," Lee nodded.

* * *

"So tell me a little bit more about that camp," Lee said putting his hands in his pockets as they took the skywalk on the twenty-eighth floor leading from the AT&T tower to the Bank of America Tower.

Glenn stopped and put his hands on the pane of glass that wasn't shattered looking down at the gaping hole in the Bank of America tower that spanned upwards about nine floors and was stretching inside the building almost halfway.

"There's not much to tell, really. Like I said it was just the guys from the military who took part in some of the bombings to try and eradicate the walkers. But, like we both know and experienced first hand, it didn't work. So they camped out here for a while, I even saw one of them scouting around one time. Now they're all gone," Glenn explained.

Lee nodded looking down at the large hole in the building that gave him a bad feeling about going inside. The way it looked to Lee, it seemed like it could collapse at any given time without warning. "So how do you know they're all gone?"

"I was going to go down and trade with them, or at least try to talk to them last week and I saw a group of walkers going inside. I waited around for about ten minutes and I heard gunfire, screaming, and then an explosion and it went silent. I haven't seen a walker around here since," Glenn said taking his hat off and wiping his growing bangs out of his eyes and slicked them back before putting the hat on again.

"Shit," was all that Lee could think to say.

"Yeah, they just- they just killed themselves like that. I don't want to die like that - I don't want to die at all, but if I have to, I won't go out like that," Glenn said more so to himself than to Lee.

"I understand, man," Lee said putting a hand on his shoulder and giving him a friendly, reassuring smile, "Now let's get going, shall we?"

Glenn nodded as the building shuddered once more "Lets get this done quick, I don't wanna be street pizza today."

Lee murmured a quick 'Yeah' as the duo moved on all the way to the fortieth floor where the camp was. Lee's thighs were really beginning to protest as he stopped outside of the fire escape door on the fortieth floor for a breather.

"Shit," Lee growled lowly.

"Hey, 'least it's good cardio," Glenn panted a few feet away from Lee.

"Let's just get this place searched," Lee instructed while sucking in a large quantity of air as though it would help his breathing troubles.

"I'll get whatever weapons they have, you go ahead and look for food and water," Glenn said heading down the right of the hallway where the blast radius was located.

Lee, on the other hand, headed down the left side of the hallway. He passed crooked golden name plates on the thick oak wood doors and scattered pieces of official documents. He entered a large, open workspace occupied by desks pushed to one side and tents neatly arranged in the middle.

Lee decided to check every single tent thoroughly. His first few tens he found nothing special aside from a Kevlar vest and an extra blanket. The next tent he checked probably belonged to the guy who put himself in charge of this fine establishment because he had a large box of canned food.

Lee celebrated in his head as he pulled out the box that was rather weighty. _'Okay, let's see,' _Lee thought, '_Several cans of beans, peas, corn, tomatoes, peaches, and chili.'_ Now he just needed to round up all of the bottles of water he saw scattered around in the forest camouflaged tents and his end of the job would be finished.

Lee stuffed the cans in his pack as he could hear Glenn cheering from down the hall. Loud, quick, and echoing footsteps radiated through the hallway until Glenn showed up at the door with two M4's, one in each hand.

"Look at me, I'm Rambo!" he yelled in glee.

"Quiet down a bit, man. You never know if there's walkers or not around," Lee cautioned while he put his backpack on a plastic table that had a map of Georgia, a map of Atlanta, and a compass.

"Don't worry about them, like I said I haven't seen a walker around here since that explosion last week.

Lee rolled his dark brown eyes, "How much ammunition does it have?"

Glenn opened his pack and Lee saw several ziplock bags of ammunition, "They were fuckin' loaded, dude," Glenn said zipping the bag up.

"Holy hell, that should last us a while!" Lee exclaimed.

Glenn nodded his head ecstatically, "Yeah, man! Give me five!" Glenn shouted putting his hand up as the building shuddered again.

Lee gave him a high five, "Look we've really got to head out now, this building is acting like it wants to fall right on too of us."

"Yeah, I agree, we can go back down to the sky-" Glenn was cut off as the building violently shook.

Lee and Glenn staggered at the sudden movement, "Shit! Run!" Lee yelled as adrenaline pulsated through his veins waking his sense of danger again.

Glenn took off towards the hallway as a loud crack was heard from far below. The door swung open as the building tilted backwards to the AT&T tower. The sound of shattering glass bounced off of the walls of the bank. The incline was too steep for Lee but he could just barely make it, he held onto the doorknob that suspended him over the wall glass below him that would lead him down to a quick death.

Glenn was holding into the other side of the door frame, "Pull yourself up! Shit!" he strained.

The most sickening noise Lee could of heard was made clear through the hallway ahead as a desk with wheel came rolling out of the other room down the hallway towards Lee and Glenn.

'_This is it,'_ Lee thinks,_ 'This is how I'm going to die.'_ he thinks as the desk rolls faster towards the two.

Time seems to slow down as Glenn is desperately trying to pull himself up and Lee is holding onto the door handle.

_'NO. I will NOT die here. I have Clementine to protect, I have my brother. I will not die like this!'_ But it was too late, as Lee pulled himself up with newfound strength the desk had already struck.

Glenn was by the side of the desk immediately losing his grip and falling down onto the glass directly below them. Lee was hit square in the face, pain shot through his body as he lost his grip and fell onto the glass, this time shattering it.

Glenn fell directly downwards as he lacked momentum but Lee's momentum carried him and the desk through to the side of the AT&T tower. Before everything went black Lee saw the Bank of America leaning on the AT&T tower and he could heard the shattering of glass and the sound of wood being forcefully dismembered.

**AN:**

**Hey guys once again! I really hope you guys enjoyed that chapter! I tried to double the length of it because I will be unable to post any new chapters until Sunday because I will be going on vacation until then. But luckily I'll be able to write and store more of the chapters during the vacation! Once again I just want to thank you guys for the support of this story and I also want to apologize if this story is not to your expectations. I'm trying to do the best that I can with this story and make it as good as I can, maybe not the best but hopefully one of the greats! Anyway, I'll see you guys on Sunday!**


	11. Chapter 11

**The Walking Dead: The World We Live In**

**Chapter 10: Broken, Bloodied, Alone**

* * *

The moon was shrouded by dark stratus clouds as the walker infested streets resonated several moans that rose above the skyscrapers making a depressing noise to any passerby. Above the tall layer of fog that covered the streets sat an unconscious Lee Everett.

Lee groaned and opened his eyes, the moonlight shone into the room he was lying in and barely illuminated it's features. As he began to sit up pain shot through his entire body reawakening his pained nerves. He grunted but tried to keep quiet as though walkers were close by. He leaned on his forearms and noticed a crimson pool next to his right side, three long cuts were torn through his new dark gray jacket. The blood had soaked around the area, or so he felt it as he shifted around and the fabric refused to move away from his body because the dried and sticky blood bound it to itself. Lee looked at his wrist and saw his watch glass was shattered and the hour hand was bent as the minute hand also appeared to be torn off.

He grunted as he tried to move his right leg, but he couldn't. Was he paralyzed? Did the glass reach his spine? Or maybe he fell too hard? No, it was a large portion of the desk that sat upon his leg, he moved his raw, bloodied arms to grab the dark oak wood desk and push it frantically off of him as he felt his strength failing him. The desk fell off of his leg with a loud, echoing this and Lee rolled over onto his stomach as another volley of pain ran through the length of his seemingly broken body again. He groaned in pain as he rolled onto his left side, the right side of his body was pulsating with agonizing pain.

Lee felt he was about to shatter his teeth as he grit them together as though it would help ease the pain. His ribs must've been broken, he put his right hand gently on his side and hissed in pain. That wasn't the worst part though, the worst part was that he would have to get up. Looking directly in front of him he could see the window he crashed in through, he could also see his pack dangling on the metal frame where the four glass panes would have been situated.

He reached out with his right hand and held it firmly against the window sill. He got on his hands and knees shakily with his right hand still firmly placed against broken chips of glass that were slowly tearing into his skin. Putting his left foot firmly onto the ground he reached his left hand over to his worst wound on the right side of his body and, gritting his teeth, attempted to stand up. He was ready to fall, ready to give up but he always kept in mind what was out there. He remembered he had a little girl to protect so he pushed on, using all of his deprived strength to get him onto his feet again.

He grabbed the brown pack and weakly slung it over his shoulders, the force of the pack with the rifle on it sent him stumbling to his left. Several cuts that tore through his clothes on his shoulder exploded in pain once more, a burning sensation rushed through his arm as he laughed himself off of the wall with a grunt.

He leaned against the window sill as he could not make it another five steps. What motivated him was what he could see far below him that motivated him to continue. Through the dense fog below Lee could see a brown backpack with a trail of blood leading to the pack of cannibalistic walkers. His eyes stung as he pushed himself off of the wall. He would not let himself turn into one of those things, so he trudged on through what appeared to be a technical support center office.

There were bodies of people who were either gunned down or just committed suicide. By this time, Lee figured as he leaned against a desk with his left forearm, that the military had learned to aim for the head. He then thought they probably knew it after the first few hours they were on the ground. He grunted and again gritted his teeth as he pushed himself again off of the desk. Few small cuts that had sealed them self shut reopened and left a small blood trail from the surface of the desk to small droplets on the light blue green carpet.

He could hear walkers locked away in a janitor's closet in the hallway outside of the technical support center, their depressing groans seeping from under the sealed doorway only urged Lee to continue. It was really beginning to get dark now as Lee plunged himself further into the depths of the hallway.

He fell to his knees and ungracefully allowed the weighty brown pack to fall from over his shoulders and to the carpeted floor. He dug through the bag slowly until his hand stopped upon cold metal. His lighter, he flipped the cap open and ignited it. It didn't help his vision much, but it would have to work.

He hadn't the slightest clue of how long the small metallic object would be able to fuel itself, but he did certainly know that he didn't want to stick around here to know.

He had to get back to Clementine, he had to. At the moment, though he figured he would get killed, he would tear his way through the sea of walkers to reach her. If he were to ever be out in a position to do so, though he feared death, he felt he would do so. These thoughts rushed and collided through his head as he made his way very slowly down the stairs.

As the orange light illuminated the number two on the red stair well wall Lee's vision became crossed and his head felt light. His stomach turned as he reached out to stop himself from calling once more. His hand slid uselessly across the wall hoping to find something to grasp as he tumbled over. The wind was knocked out of him as he landed on his back.

His vocal cords strained to produce even a sliver of a sound, he couldn't scream in pain if he tried. The momentary lack of air seemed to have been the best thing that could have happened to him, though. Four walkers that were passing the doorway at a reasonable distance away from him would have heard him had he the breath to shout.

Lying in rubble and ash he waited for his breath to come back. With each sharp, tantalizing intake of breath the pain pulsated in rhythm through his body once more. Willing his muscles to pull and his spirit to go on he sat up again.

Slowly but surely Lee rose again, and so did a fire inside of him. Bound and determined to walk through those double doors and into the horde he walked forward. His determination seemed to have eased the pain is his body, he was able to walk without a limp, each step was painless. He didn't know what it was, but it helped him, and he liked it. It was like almost as if a dark shroud wrapping him in its arms, lifting him up, urging him to keep going.

Leaning against the wooden doorway he observed the, as his brother might have called it, a metric fuck ton of walkers. The brick tiled street was surrounded by coffee shops and small time department stores, it was even littered with a handful of fast food restaurants. Lee stayed put as the walkers began to thin out. The longer he waited the better he felt.

As he waited he scanned the darkened streets and looked for a car. In the distance there appeared to be a small, slick red car. He could barely tell from the moonlight but he would have to chance it, otherwise he would be left to the rooftops. And if that were the case then his chances of surviving the trek back to camp would slim down tremendously.

He walked as quickly as he could trying to avoid stepping on any gravel or glass shards there were to alert the walkers. They had taken a path down the road that was heading left from the red brick street. Lee tried the handle and to his surprise the car door opened. The keys were even on the seat, so was dried blood. Lee sighed and placed his pack down on the passengers seat.

He sat down and started the ignition, the red sports car roared to life. He could feel the car vibrating and the exhaust popping in the back. He closed his eyes ignoring the scraping of feet on the road. His head throbbed and the numbness left him. A loud noise and a cracking sound came from the drivers side window.

Lee's eyes opened again and the pain left him once more, it was Glenn. He had charged against the window, his only eye left was glossed over and silver. The other eye, his left eye, was dangling from its bloodied socket. The left half of his face had been torn off, the blood and bone shone brightly in the moonlight. Lee's stomach turned in sadness and in horror.

Glenn had managed to crack the window in several places, he reeled back showing the bloodied mangled mess he was now and charged the window again, this time breaking it.

Lee grappled for the pistol on the pack as Glenn grabbed his arm, within seconds there was a loud bang as smoke escaped from the barrel of the gun. Lee dropped the weapon on his lap in shock. He looked over at Glenn's bleeding walker corpse and put the car in drive, his foot was neither on the accelerator or on the brakes.

The car cruised forward at a steady five miles per hour, Lee placed his forehead against the black wheel. He looked up with tearful eyes and let out a pained scream as he slammed his foot on the accelerator.

Twenty.

Thirty.

Forty.

Fifty.

Sixty.

Seventy.

Eighty.

Ninety.

Lee screamed in sadness as he tore through the streets of Atlanta racing out of the city at one hundred and ten miles per hour.

Lee was dead silent and still speeding when he was less than two minutes from the camp. He was most likely about to have a scope aimed at his car but he didn't care, Glenn's death hadn't hit him until he saw the man. He couldn't help but feel that it was his fault, he could have grabbed him. Something. Anything. Lee then grit his teeth in anger. There wasn't anything he could do. He was trying very hard to sell that thought to himself.

The tires screeched loudly as Lee pressed down hard on the brake peddle right in the center of the two gates. The lantern lit Motor Inn's gates opened slowly as the group realized it was Lee and what they may have thought was Glenn too.

Lee slowly pulled into the parking lot and cut the ignition. It was Bud who had opened the gates and he leaned walked up to the scratched red car.

"Shit, man. What happened to you? Where's Glenn?" Bud asked looking around to the other side of the car.

Lee sighed, his head was throbbing and he didn't feel like talking.

"What happened back there?" Bud asked as Kenny, Lilly, and Larry walked up behind Bud.

"I'll tell you what happened, this fuck up did what came naturally and fucked up the entire run. Didn't you?" Larry asked angrily.

"Why don't you just lay the fuck off and let the man speak?" Kenny asked turning to Larry with an annoyed expression.

Lee sighed once more, "He fell, there was nothing I could do," Lee said through gritted teeth.

Regret panged in his chest, "Son of a bitch, what happened Lee? Exactly?" Lilly asked putting her hands on her hips.

Lee's stone face was cracking, "We went into the Bank of America, it was like a ticking time bomb. We were on the higher levels and it fell against the building next to it, I couldn't grab him-"

"You dumb shit!" Larry accused pinching the bridge of his large nose.

"Dad, calm down!" Lilly scolded putting a hand on his shoulder.

"No! I always have to 'calm down' for this piece of shit! I'm so tired of you fucking up, Lee! I don't even know how to handle you anymore!" Larry growled.

The river of rage bubbled in Lee's system. He took a single step towards Larry and said softly enough for only Larry to hear, "If you don't know how to handle me, Larry, then I strongly suggest that you tread lightly."

Larry said nothing and before Lilly could speak up Kenny cut her off, "Hey Lee, I think you should go have Katjaa patch you up. I think she'll want to hear the news, too," Kenny said creating a way for Lee to leave the group of people.

Kenny really was a good friend to Lee, they did their best to help each other out all of the time. There have been countless times when Kenny had watched Clementine for Lee when he was out and the same for Lee watching Duck for Kenny and Katjaa. Lee figured it was best to surround yourself by people you could trust, people that would watch your back and help you up when you're down.

Lee's side throbbed in dull pain as he walked over to Katjaa's medical room that she had set up right next to Mark's room. Lee tapped his head against the wooden door as he grasped his side that sent its minutely sharp wave of pain through his body. Katjaa opened the door with a smile until the lantern fully illuminated Lee.

She gasped, "Lee! My god, what happened to you?"

The anger had fully subsided by then and Lee gave a pained frown, "It's a long story, I'll tell you inside," Lee gestured with a blood dried right hand.

"Yes, yes of course, come on in."

**AN:**

**Hello once again my faithful audience! I don't know if it's just me but this chapter just felt... off. I imagine it's because I tried to make this chapter dark, which I am just not used to doing at all. I mean, the Walking Dead universe in itself is dark but i am just not used to making a dark centered chapter or story so fingers crossed that I can improve upon that area. Speaking of improvements, I think I was able to add a bit more detail in this chapter than I have in others. And if we're touching the surfaces of a universe then I would like to say I already have planned a mini universe based around this story and ita sequel. The sequel will most likely be named The World We've Adapted To. It's kind of an iffy name, more a place holder than anything. Also I have two (MAYBE three) spin off stories following this main story to tie into the sequel. Ok, now that that is all on the table and this authors note is at an unreasonably long length, I bid you all farewell and I'll see you in the next chapter!**


	12. Chapter 12

**The Walking Dead: The World We Live In**

**Chapter 11: Thirty-Eight**

* * *

One month after Glenn's death Lee was woken up by the calling of his name and the shaking of his bed. He sat up quickly thinking that he and the group was in danger, he then sighed with a small laugh. Clementine was perched on the edge of his bed urging him to wake up with the biggest grin on her young face.

"What's up, Clementine?" Lee asked groggily.

"Bud says he wants to take us swimming!" Clementine exclaimed.

Lee chuckled at Clementine's enthusiasm, "Just us three?"

Clementine nodded, "Yeah he said he wants to leave right now!"

Lee swung his legs over the side of the bed and stretched, "Right now huh?"

Clementine nodded her head excitedly, "Come on, Lee!"

Lee rubbed his hand tiredly over his face and got up, his side had managed to stay persistently sore and was just now finally starting to go away. Clementine didn't seem as though she was waiting for a proper response and took his getting up as the go ahead to lead him to Bud. Lee was just happy that she was keeping herself occupied, what with her parents missing and all.

Both she and Lee hadn't the slightest idea if her parents were okay, Lee tried to stay hopeful for her but he knew they were most likely dead. Just like his parents, he tried not to think about it but he couldn't help it sometimes. No one even had to tell him that they were dead either, he just knew. It was a gut feeling, the feeling he had learned to rely on in the past two months.

Clementine bounded down the stairs and rushed to Bud's side near the black Sedan they had fixed up not two weeks ago. Lee scratched his back as he slowly made his way over to the two. As he looked around he realized that no one but Carley was on watch.

"Hurry up, old man," Bud teased.

"Old man, huh? Well now I'm going to make you wait," Lee said as Clementine gave Bud an annoyed stare for delaying the former professor.

Lee climbed up the ladder and greeted Carley, "Hey, that thing is actually working?" Lee asked gesturing to the two liter soda bottle on the end of Carley's hunting rifle.

"Yeah, I had no idea Mark was that smart," she mused as she looked up at Lee.

Lee scoffed, "Certainly, the peak of intelligence definitely comes to pass when you put an empty bottle of soda over a gun for a suppressor."

Carley rose her eyebrows and her mouth opened slightly as Lee turned to look at the street. She then decided to toy with him, "What's wrong? You think he's smarter than you or something, _professor_?" Carley sneered.

"Absolutely not! Well, I don't want to sound like a dick, so I'd say we're both smart for different things," Lee said while somewhat tripping over his explanation.

Carley nodded slowly, "Why'd you come up here anyway, Everett?"

Lee put his weight on his right foot and stuffed his hands in his pockets, "Bud called me old, so I came up here."

Carley raised an eyebrow, "He called you old, so you came up here-"

"It's complicated," Lee explained with a nervous half smile.

Carley rolled her green orbs and then smirked, "Well you're not old, you don't even look a day over fifty."

Lee sighed and turned around, "Alright, I've had enough."

Carley laughed, "I'm kidding! Have fun, you little baby."

Lee scoffed at the woman as he slid down the ladder. "Are you quite done flirting?" Bud asked looking at Carley's retreating form as he opens the drivers side door of the Sedan.

Clementine, who was studying the needlework of her ball cap looked up at Bud and Lee, "Flirting?"

Bud chuckled as he pulled out of the camp, "Oh yes, my dear. Your dear friend here is a practiced flirt. You should have seen him in High school, oh man!"

Clementine laughed at Bud's explanation as she curled her legs under her body. Lee rolled his eyes, "I never flirted, Clementine. I was just nice to girls."

Bud scoffed and turned to Clementine who was dragging her thin digits across the smooth black leather, "Don't listen to him, Clem. He knows good and well that he was a flirt back in the day."

"So what if I was, and I _wasn't_, by the way," Lee said with emphasis like it was going to stop Bud. It didn't.

"So what do you see in her anyway, huh buddy boy?" Bud asked getting into a comfortable position.

Clementine sat in the back observing their conversation and occasionally laughing to herself.

"How about this, what do you see in Lilly, huh 'buddy boy'?" Lee asked with a smirk plastered onto his face.

Clementine, who had remained silent mostly spoke up on Lee's side, "OOOHHHH! Burn!"

Lee turned around with a raised eyebrow and Bud sighed as Clementine's cheeks became flushed. "What? That's what Mark says all the time," she said with her soft, small voice.

Lee grinned and held out his hand for a low five, "Damn right, Clem." Clementine extended her small, soft hand to smack Lee's large, rough hand.

"S-so you're just going to take his side on this, eh? I see how it is, Clem," Bud teased teaching his right hand back and giving her a slight push on her slim shoulder.

"Hey!" she giggled falling back against the seat.

"But really Lee, I don't see anything in her at all, so you can kindly shut up," Bud said matter of factly.

Lee opened his eyes wide in mock surprise, "Clementine, do you hear that? He's in denial!"

Clementine, in her bubbly mood, nodded, "Yup!"

"And you're just going to agree with everything he says now?" Bud asked incredulously.

Clementine was holding onto the edge of the backseat and was swinging her legs back and forth, "Yup!"

Bud rolled his dark brown eyes once more, "Fine, you're not swimming then."

"Oh yes I will! Won't I Lee?" Clementine retaliated with a large grin.

Lee nodded and waited for Bud's reaction, "Oh, I know not!" Bud exclaimed as Lee pinched the bridge of his nose.

"You... know not?" Lee asked shaking his head.

"I have a way with words, man," Bud said looking away from Lee as if he was priding himself.

"Did Lilly tell you that?" Lee asked earning a small laugh from Clementine.

"Because if she did, you know what that means right?" Lee asked teasing his little brother.

Bud stuck his middle finger in Lee's face as he swerved slightly to the left of the road, "You know what _that_ means?"

"No," Clementine piped innocently from the back.

Lee chuckled, "I'll tell you eventually, but it's a swear."

Clementine nodded slowly as she out her cap back on, "Oh."

The rest of the five minute drive to the lake Bud had found was rather quiet. Bud stopped after several twists and turns down a gravel road and got out of the black Sedan as the orange and red leaves circled around his feet. Lee and Clementine got out of the car and walked through the dirt road Bud had already started down.

They arrived at a very clear lake with lush trees and vegetation. "Isn't this place nice?" Bud asked.

Lee looked around as the cool wind brushed against his face and nestled its way through his hair and beard, "Yeah, how'd you find this place anyway?"

Bud shrugged as he walked to the lakeside, "I just like to get out sometimes, you know, go exploring."

Lee put his hands in his pockets and followed his brother, kicking wet rocks into the calm current. Clementine, who had disappeared into the trees, emerged with a dark purple bathing suit. She ran to lee's side, "Lee, will you swim with me?" she asked pulling on his hand.

Lee looked down and then back at his brother, "Did you even bring swimming trunks?"

Bud crossed his arms, "No, we don't have any," he said as he pushed Lee into the water.

The cool water soaked through Lee's clothes as he was plunged into the five feet of water. Lee stood up as the water lapped at his shoulders, "You know, I don't really like you."

Bud shrugged while trying to hide his sneer, "You'll get used to it, c'mon Clem," Bud urged as he jumped into the water.

He emerged with his eyes closed and sputtering, "Water got up my nose!" he whined.

Lee grinned at his brother, "Catch me, Lee!" Clementine shouted from atop the rocks.

Lee looked up as Clementine jumped from the rocky side of the river, he extended his arms to catch the small girl. She crash landed into his arms and noticed her hat flew off, "My hat!"

Lee, holding Clementine in one arm and extending the other for the hat caught in the weak current, grabbed the soaking hat and plopped it onto Clementine's head and slid his fingers across the bridge while laughing.

"There you go, Clem," Lee said proudly as the water cascaded off of the tip of her hat and into the water.

"Hey, Lee, check this out!" Bud exclaimed from behind the two from behind.

Lee turned around and let Clementine go, he carefully watched her to make sure she knew how to float. When Lee was absolutely sure she could swim on her own he turned around fully only to be greeted by a torrent of rushing water thrown into his face. Lee closed his eyes tightly and cursed his brother as he spit the water out of his mouth.

Bud laughed, "It works every time! I got you so goo- agh!" Bud exclaimed as bubbly water was thrown into his face causing him to reel to his right.

Clementine stuck her tongue at Bud causing Lee to laugh heartily, "Oh you know what?" Bud asked before slapping the water.

It flew towards Clementine who pushed herself backwards just barely avoiding the watery blow. She giggled at Bud's disappointment, "Missed me!"

"Well I won't!" Lee proclaimed as he splashed water towards Clementine.

"Oh yeah! That's how it's done bro!" Bud yelled victoriously holding his hand up to receive a high five from Lee.

Lee held his hand up to give a high five to his brother but realized he was being tricked. Bud reached down quickly and scooped water up and chucked it into Lee's face.

This was war.

* * *

After spending early an hour fighting an unorganized water war the trio decided to dry off on the smooth gray rocks. The sound of the water flowing over every exposed rock and splashing against the rocky riverbed was soothing to Lee. The warm sunlight filtered through the pine trees and was occasionally accompanied by a cool breeze that kissed the surface of Lee's skin. Clementine and Bud had wandered off back to the car just a moment ago leaving Lee to bask in the sunlight and in his thoughts.

Matters pressed on his mind like a large weight against a slim pane of cracked glass. The group's food supply was just beginning to run short and miniature power struggles of what should and should not be done bubbled up occasionally between Kenny and Lilly. Lee tried to stay out of their arguments and just do what he thought was right. He struggled with doing the right thing as the realization struck him many a time ago that the apocalypse was beginning to mold and shape his actions.

It would have been hard to notice for one, but despite Lee's desperate struggle to do right he was still quick to anger and occasionally to rash actions. He tried his best to suppress his hot-headed mindset he received from his mother and tried to set a good example for Clementine. He tried his damnedest to make sure she stayed pure of heart and kept a good mindset and attitude. Always trying to do good by the girl and show her the world wasn't truly gone just yet, only some of the people. Yet he still slipped in front of her some times, still managed to inadvertently plant a seed of doubt in her young mind that he was wrong and the world truly was gone. Those were times he wished that the girl wasn't so intelligent, he wished she could be carefree like Duck and not so observative and perceptive during those times.

He figured, eventually, that it may be good for her to see things the way they were. It broke his heart, however, to see a little girl watch the world she lived in to be destroyed along with the hope of better days. These thoughts churned in his head as the leaves cracked and Lee sat up ready for action.

It was only Clementine and Bud, though, not a walker in sight. It was weird, Lee thought. Not having any walkers around, he hasn't heard or seen any walkers since the three of them arrived here. He thought that the noise of the vehicle might have drawn attention from the walkers, but strangely it didn't. The air grew cold as a subconscious realization came to him. There had to have been people nearby.

"Happy birthday, Lee!" Clementine chirped interrupting his thoughts and suspicions.

She was carrying that wooden box Lee had seen her with the day Glenn died. Bud walked behind her, hands in his semi dry pockets with a grin, "Happy birthday, man."

"Here, Bud and I got this for you," Clementine said softly, unsure of her gift that she handed to Lee.

He rubbed his hands over the smooth oak wood and opened the box, it was a black and silver wristwatch.

"You always said you needed a watch, so I asked Bud to take me on a short run with him. I didn't know if you would like it so I just picked the one I thought-" she trailed of as Lee observed the boxes contents with an empty expression.

He looked up at Clementine who was biting her lower lip and smiled warmly at the girl before pulling her into a hug, "Thank you so much, sweet pea."

"You like it, then?" Clementine asked with her hands pressed together hopefully.

Lee slipped the shiny watch over his wrist and nodded at the girl, "I love it, Clem. Thank you."

Clementine grinned widely with both relief and joy. Bud on the other hand sneered, "So how does it feel to be old?"

"I don't know, how does it feel to be a smart ass?" Lee asked leaning back on his hands.

Bud scoffed as another round of crackling leaves echoed throughout the forest. All fell silent except for the rushing water.

The trio stepped off of the mid thigh level rocks and walked slowly toward the center of the noise. Lee took out his revolver as Bud did with his colt. The sound of a bolt cutting through the air radiated in Lee's ear drums as a crossbow bolt implanted itself into the ground before Lee's leading foot.

"Don't move, not even a muscle," a gruff voice sounded.

"Don't be a coward, show yourself!" Bud taunted.

Clementine latched onto Lee's shirt tail as two men appeared from behind the trees. The first man was the one who had the crossbow. He looked to be in his early fifties and was growing a gray and black mountain beard, he seemed to be the biggest threat out of the two.

The other, was a younger man who looked to be in his very early twenties. His long hair was shrouded by a blue and black hoodie. His dark green eyes pierced though the shadows of the good as he looked at the three survivors inquisitively. He held his revolver at his side as he licked his lips which was surrounded by a goatee and light stubble.

"The fuck are y'all doing on our land?" the crossbow wielding man asked placing the weapon on his back and pulling out an M4 assault rifle.

Lee just about had a mini heart attack at the sight of the weapon, "What do you mean your land? I don't see any tents," Bud challenged holding his pistol at the man's head.

The green eyed man and Lee met uncertain eye contact which asked the question - friend or for?

"This is our land," the man stated firmly.

He leaned back on one foot and kicked his terribly chapped and cracking lips, "Now maybe we all can come to a compromise, you drop all of your shit and surrender your car, or we kill you three."

He stated it so matter-of-factly that it made Lee's blood run cold. "You fucking try," Bud growled.

Lee spoke up before Bud could earn the three an early death, "Now listen, this is your land, I understand that. Just let us go, we won't come near you again, you'll never see us. It won't turn out well for either of us if you start shooting. Just let is go, man."

The green eyed man looked up to his partner, "Trevor, just let them go. They're not harming anyone, they're good people. I can tell."

Trevor scoffed at the man, "Jacob, you have to learn to not trust peoples bullshit stories. Now you're either with me or not."

Lee put a protective left hand over Clementine's chest as he pushed her behind him in case the man did start shooting.

"I won't stand for this, Trevor. It's not right!" Jacob protested putting his gun down.

Trevor grit his teeth in anger, "Fine," he punched Jacob square in ten jaw and raised his M4 at the three survivors.

"No!" Jacob yelled as Trevor released a volley of bullets at his three targets sending birds flying towards the cloudy sky.

**AN: **

**Hello once again my friends! I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, I tried to make it a bit lighter and sprinkle it with a little bit of humor now and then. Of course, up until the end. Also I would like to give a large thank you for the OC Jacob provided by Micidonalboss. Feel free to give any feedback and see if you can spot the Breaking Bad reference in this chapter. Another thing, if you remember how I spoke about crafting a mini universe for this story and its sequel, I have the dates of the five confirmed stories in this universe on my profile so feel free to check that out. Anyway, I'll see you guys in the next chapter!**


	13. Chapter 13

**The Walking Dead: The World We Live In**

**Chapter 12: A New Member**

* * *

"No!" Jacob yelled getting Lee's attention.

Barely two seconds before the gunfire began Lee wrapped his arms around Clementine and jumped to his left into the water. He had no idea how Bud was doing as he crashed into the now violent stream of water. He opened his eyes to the blurry underwater environment. He couldn't make out any fine details aside from the fact that Clementine was probably running out of air. Lee could, however, spot a stable looking branch that he could cling onto.

The two tore through the water as Lee tried to time his action. It had to be perfect, he would either miss and keep going down or he would hit it and slip. His heart did a double take as he latched onto the branch with one hand. He used all of his might to pull himself and Clementine out of the rapids. They were directly behind the rock meaning they hadn't gone too far.

"You okay?" Lee whispered to Clementine who was sitting against the rock and coughing.

She nodded and rubbed her eyes, "I'm okay... you saved me."

"Yeah, I guess I did," Lee said huffing, "You stay right here, okay?"

"Okay."

Lee could hear the sound of two men struggling beyond the rock. Lee rushed around the rock and saw the two men fighting. Jacob, who had taken the survivors side, seemed to be getting the upper hand on Trevor. But Bud - Bud was lying against the stone, his hand covered his shoulder as he winced in pain. Dark blood flowed through the cracks in his fingers as he tried to apply pressure to his wound.

Lee, dropped to his knees and applied pressure to his brother's wound, "Lee," Bud moaned pointing ahead.

The two men, Jacob and Trevor, were frantically fighting each other. Lee could see strings of blood erupting from Trevor's nose as Jacob fought to subdue the older man. Unfortunately, age and experience won over the younger man as Trevor, who was pinned on his back, managed to get a hard punch to the side of Jacob's jaw. Jacob tumbled off of the older man as Lee felt a nudge in his side.

Bud was handing him his Glock, "Take him down," Bud hissed gritting his teeth and jabbing the handle of the gun into Lee's bloodied hand before slipping into unconsciousness.

Lee took it and without much hesitation aimed the gun at Trevor and fired. The bullet tore through the man's jugular like a hot knife through cool butter. Blood spurts from the dying form of Trevor onto Jacob's arms, chest, and face. Jacob reeled backwards against a pine tree's trunk.

Lee dropped the gun and stumbled back against the rock placing his hands shakily onto its cool, marble like surface. Bile threatened to race to his throat but he swallowed as his stomach churned in disgust. Walkers were fine to kill, Lee thought. It would always be that way, but people. Killing someone who is living is a whole different ball game, it would change a man forever. And even though Trevor was trying to kill them Lee couldn't help but feel bad and wonder why the world had gotten this way.

Lee, regaining his strength and composing himself, pushed off of the rock and walked to Trevor's lifeless, bleeding body. He bent down slowly and pulled the assault rifle away from his body along with a clip that he had strapped to his chest. He put the black clip into his pocket and walked backwards to where Jacob was and took aim.

Jacob's green eyes widened at the man in front of him, "Hey man, that wasn't my fault! I didn't even want to hurt you guys, I-"

The shot echoed through the seemingly endless forest, Trevor now sported a bleeding hole in his skull. Lee looked down tight lipped with disgust at the chunks of brain matter sliding down the side of his face into the pool of blood. Lee placed the assault rifle's strap around himself and extended his right hand to Jacob.

Jacob looked shakily between his former partner's corpse and Lee's extended hand. Jacob took Lee's hand and was hoisted up by the older man, "Why did you-" Jacob stammered looking at the corpse.

Lee sighed thinking of Glenn, "I learned a while back that they come back as those... things," Lee trailed off as he the images of Glenn's mutilated walker body, "A bullet to the brain, if that's not how you kill them, they'll just come back," Lee stated.

Jacob pressed his lips together and nodded backing up from the pool of blood that flowed over and under the foliage towards his red running shoes. "Oh shit," Jacob said running to Bud just realizing that he had been shot in all of the chaos.

"I'll get the car, come on Clem," Lee said rushing the girl out of her spot behind the rock.

"What do you mean, 'get the car'? What do you expect me to do?" Jacob asked crouched by Bud.

Clementine hid behind Lee's leg and looked out towards Jacob as Lee spoke, "Well you're coming with is aren't you? I mean at least for a little while, get you on your feet, after all, I did just kill your partner," Lee swallowed and resisted the urge to look at the corpse.

"Yes, but-" he stopped and gestured to Bud unknowingly.

"Keep pressure on it, we'll be right back," Lee said gesturing for Clementine to follow him.

Lee's head spun at what he just did. Lee knew good and well that this was going to haunt him, without a doubt that moment was going to stay with him for as long left as he had to live. Be it ten years, maybe two years, two months even - the burden of murder, even justifiable, is something he will carry with him and will mold him.

Clementine crawled into the front seat sinking into the leather, "I think Bud is going to be okay," Clementine said surely.

Lee peeled out of the dirt and leaves into the twisty gravel road. Clementine looked up at Lee and pursed her lips, why wouldn't he talk to her? Lee figured that had to have been what Clementine was thinking, but he just couldn't bring himself to speak. He couldn't stop thinking about Trevor. Lee skidded to a halt and swung the driver's side door open and rushed to Jacob and Bud.

"How's he doing?" Lee asked.

Jacob removed his hands, "Bleeding's stopped for now, I took a quick look at his back and there's an exit wound. So you'll probably only need to worry about sewing him back up."

Lee nodded, "Yeah, can you help me lift him?"

"Yeah, yeah," Jacob said quickly and put his arm on Bud's lower back.

Lee pulled under Bud's good shoulder and, with effort, the two had gotten Bud up onto his feet and into the back of the Sedan. Lee crawled into the driver's seat as Jacob situated himself in the back to support and make sure Bud wouldn't start bleeding again. The drive back to camp was silent aside from the roar of the Sedan's engine as Les tore down the blacktop roads. Leaves were thrown to the side of the black car as it continued down its unstoppable path.

Lee stopped the car smoothly in front of the dumpster gates. Lilly pushed the dumpster doors open and Lee pulled in and backed up into the parking space right by Katjaa's medical office. Lee and Jacob jumped out of the car with Clementine close in suit, "Clem, go get Katjaa, please."

Clementine bounded off into the woman's make-shift office where she would likely be going over the medical supplies the group had. Lee opened the left back door as Jacob circled around the back of the car to help Lee drag his brother out, "He only bled a little bit on the way back," Jacob stated while assisting Lee with getting Bud standing upright. His red jacket had dark stains running down the chest and circling onto the side.

Katjaa burst outside with a plastic table that she unfolded next to the car, she laid out a pristine white sheet onto the table before Lee and Jacob laid Bud's unconscious form onto it. "You two," she gestured to Lee and Jacob, "Help me move him inside."

The two men picked up a side of the plastic table and, as steadily as they could, brought it into the dim room. Katjaa lit the lanterns that sat on shelves around the beige painted walls. "Lee, can I have a word with you for a moment?" Lilly hissed into the room. Clementine was standing behind the former Air Force worker awkwardly clasping her wrist.

Lee sighed and walked outside. He could hear Katjaa instructing Jacob from outside. Duck pulled Clementine away from the two adults and tried to urge her to play hide and seek with him.

"What the hell is this?" Lilly asked pointing to Katjaa's office where Jacob was helping her to stabilize Bud.

Lee looked absentmindedly at the doorframe, he noticed every chip in the frame, every area that the paint began to chip. He even noticed that the after years of use the door hinges were finally beginning to pull loose from the wood.

"Lee!" Lilly shouted.

Lee blinked several times and looked at Lilly, his face was void of emotion, "Lee, you can't just bring new people here, you should know that by now!"

Lee sighed as Carley walked over to them, "And what are you doing abandoning your post?" Lilly asked pinching the bridge of her nose, she looked so dissatisfied right now.

Carley put a hand on her hip, "What's the matter? What happened?"

"I brought someone new in," Lee said lowly.

His voice was barely audible, "So this is your big problem?" Carley asked incredulously.

"In case I haven't made myself clear over the past few group meetings I'll say it again; we cannot, under any circumstances, bring in new people. It just can't happen. We're low on food as it is, we can't just bring in new mouths to feed, you all know this," Lilly said stressing each point.

It made sense, but how could he just leave Jacob there. After he killed- murdered his partner, he couldn't force himself to leave the man there to die. Lee knew it was because he still felt the guilt, but he tried to believe it was because he was a good person.

"We can't just be heartless people, Lilly," Carley protested.

"I'm not saying we have to be heartless, he can stay the night, fine. But we can't keep him here, we just simply do not have the supplies to house him here. Mark is lucky I let him stay here," Lilly countered.

"I'm sorry, what?" Lee asked gritting his teeth, "Did you just say what I think you did?"

Lee laughed almost manically for a short moment before scowling at Lilly's confused expression, "You didn't _let_ him in by free will, so don't you lie to me. We heard you, Carley and I, you were good and ready to leave him, Carley had to _beg_ you to let us save him. Don't come and try to play the saint here, Lilly."

"Because you are a saint, Everett?" Lilly countered placing her hands on her hips almost daring Lee to strike back.

"No, I'm not," he snarled, "But I'll be goddamned if I'm going to leave someone behind. That may be what you are, but that is _**not**_ who I am."

Lilly seemed to be shocked but quickly regained her stiff composure, "Fine, Lee, let him stay. In fact, why don't we let the whole fucking state in here too-"

"That's not what I mean!" Lee growled.

"When someone dies because of your decision, Lee, it won't be on my back," she scowled and walked away.

Lee scoffed and turned to walk away but felt a hand grab his arm, Lee turned and saw Carley's concerned eyes glance over him, "Do you want to talk about it?"

Lee just shook his head, "Later, okay?"

Carley bit her lip and let go of Lee's arm hesitantly, "Okay."

...

Lee cupped his head in his hands as he sat on the end of his bed. He had been sitting there for hours, he looked up and immediately felt his eyes burn as rays of the dying sunlight tore into his vision. He closed his eyes and could practically feel the skin wrinkle around his eyelids. Lee's eyes opened when a knock on the door echoed thought the small, dingy motel room. Lee got up stiffly and too fast, he clenched his jaw and rubbed the side of his face as spots danced across his vision.

He opened the door to Carley, "Bad time?" Carley asked looking to her left and right.

Lee shook his head, "Come on in," his voice sounded hoarse.

He opened the door fully and leaned his back against the wall to let Carley pass. Lee closed the door and scratched the back of his neck, "Where's Clementine?" Carley asked brushing her fingertips over the girl's desk.

Lee shrugged, "She's down with Duck, Ken found an old crank TV so they've been watching that for a while... so, you know-"

Carley turned to Lee, "What happened to you, Lee?"

Lee sighed and looked away from the woman, he stared at the cracking paint once more. Carley walked closer to Lee and grabbed his wrist gently almost as if she wanted to grab for his hand, "Lee, you can talk to me. You know that, right?"

Lee bent his downwards, the space between them was minimal, "I know," he whispered hoarsely.

Her hand slipped down slowly from his wrist and into his large hand and gave it a comforting squeeze as her green orbs fell into his dark brown ones, "Then please, Lee, tell me what's wrong," she paused, "I'm worried about you," she whispered.

"I had to kill someone, a living, breathing person," Lee said looking slightly to his right.

Carley was silent, but she didn't move. Instead, she listened, "Jacob was with this older man, around fifty, his name was Trevor. He wanted to kill us and take everything we had because he said we were on his land," Lee breathed heavily and shakily, "I tried to convince him otherwise, just so all of us could walk away. He wasn't having any of that, though. And when Jacob disagreed, he opened fire."

"That's why Bud was shot," Carley stated softly.

Lee inhaled deeply and nodded slowly, "Yeah, I got Clementine to safety and I saw him. He gave me his gun, I didn't even hesitate," Lee chuckled bitterly.

Carley placed her free hand on Lee's chest, "Lee, that's not your fault. He threatened you, your brother, Clementine," Carley said with emphasis.

"I just can't get it out of my head, it's like it's eating away at me," Lee looked down, "I didn't even have to kill him, but no. I could've shot him in the leg-"

Carley's green eyes pierced him and her voice was comforting but stern, "You did the right thing, Lee. If you had just incapacitated him he could've gotten up, maybe killed you. What would Clementine do, then? You did the right thing." she repeated.

Lee mostly believed her, but before he could speak again someone began to rap on the door. Carley pulled away from Lee as Jacob opened the door, "Hey, Katjaa said you could come see Bud- oh! I'm sorry, I didn't realize-"

Carley shook her head and smiled awkwardly at the twenty year old, "No, it's okay, I was just going."

Jacob slid out of the way for Carley to pass and looked at Lee's still form, "I'm so sorry."

Lee held up a hand, "It's alright, Jacob."

Lee walked out of his room with Jacob and walked down the long, narrow balcony, "So Bud's good?" Lee asked.

Jacob's eyebrows rose as Lee's mode seemed to have improved drastically over the past two hours, "Yeah- well not 'up and running' good, but good. Katjaa's got him on some sedatives right now and is administering some pain killers to him to help him rest well."

Lee nodded thinking about Clementine's assurance that he would be just fine. He would have to go see her later, maybe watch one of those movies Kenny found with her and Duck, "That's good."

Jacob stopped and gazed at the road, "So, how long am I staying here?" he asked cutting straight to the chase.

"You're welcome here as long as you want to stay," Lee said leaning on the balcony with they young man.

"You guys have a good thing going here, you know that?" Jacob asked keeping his eyes focused on the road and the red leaves falling from the trees and gently scraping the blacktop.

Lee gazed over their fortifications and the group embers walking about the parking lot attending to their own duties. He spotted Clementine walking down the parking lot to the area under the awning where Kenny had began cooking the fish he and Mark caught the other day. She peered up at him and smiled and waved. He winked at her with a smile, he chuckled to himself as her grin widened, "Yeah, we do."

**AN:**

**CAUTION: APPROACHING EPISODE TWO TERRITORY. Haha, the time has come. Episode two for this story is just around the corner and I'm excited to get writing for that. Unfortunately, school is flaring up and the updates will slow down noticeably. I still, however, will do my best to update once a week, hopefully twice. Also if you notice, I put a little dash of CarLee into this chapter. You can expect more of that and some serious character development for Lee in the episode two portion of the next few chapters. Which brings me to another thing, I would just like to get you guys's opinion, how well do you guys think I've stayed true to these characters and have I done then justice? Well, once again, thank you guys for reading and sharing your feedback with me! I'll see you guys in the next chapter!**


	14. Chapter 14

**The Walking Dead: The World We Live In**

**Chapter 13: St. John**

* * *

Lee rose slowly with his axe in hand, he lifted the deadly weapon high above him and swung it downwards. The back of the walker's skull was crushed as the chipped blade end of the axe found its way into the walker's brain. The beast went limp and a small animal's carcass dropped from its hungry grasp. Mark rose behind Lee, "So, what did they get this time?"

Lee stepped over the dead walker and observed the carcass whose ribs were exposed from the gaping hole in its chest, "Probably a rabbit."

Mark sighed letting go of his hunting rifle with one hand and adjusting his spectacles, "Damnit, that would've been a good meal."

Lee nodded his head as the two continued to walk the forest floor, so far the two survivor's hunt wasn't going well. What with three animals they had been tracking were killed by stray walkers, it was evident this wasn't a good trip.

"God damnit!" Mark cursed again, "Of course when we're almost out of food is when we can't get anything. I'm starving," Mark said adding the last phrase for good measure.

"We're all hungry, Mark," Lee said gazing around at the autumn tinted vegetation for any sign of life.

"I just wish Lilly would actually tell us how many we have instead of insisting that we'll make it," Mark scowled.

Lee shrugged, "She probably doesn't want to worry anyone."

"She's obviously worrying Kenny, he's always getting himself into arguments with her nowadays. He's even been talking about up and leaving when he gets that RV fixed," Mark stated glancing around the forest floor.

Lee looked up at the towering pine trees before responding to Mark, "He's just worried about his family, cut him some slack. I worry about Bud and Clementine, too."

"I guess you're right, but still. It's like everyone's got a stick up their ass, did you see when Larry went off at Jacob yesterday?" Mark asked stopping Lee so they could crouch behind a large boulder next to the thin frame of a pine tree.

Lee shook his head and scoffed at Larry's usual behavior. Lee, at the beginning, just wanted to make peace with this man. Not anymore, he knew that wasn't going to happen, Larry was too stuck in the past to move forward.

"Doesn't surprise me," Lee shrugged.

"He seems to hate you the most, though," Mark observed.

"We've had a shaky past," Lee said, "I knew him before all of this started," Lee said alleviating Mark's confusion.

"Well he should put that aside, we've bigger problems now," Mark said.

A black bird sang on the thin branch of a pine tree directly in front of them. Lee and Mark took cover on adjoining trees, Mark poked out with his rifle. Lee sized up the bird as Mark looked to Lee for the green light, "No, don't," Lee shook his head stepping out of his thin cover.

Mark gave him a confused gaze but slowly lowered his rifle, "Don't bother, it's too small. I mean, don't get me wrong, I would love to have it but it's not worth the noise," Lee said.

Mark sighed as the bird flew away, "Yeah, you're right. Do you think Kenny is having any more luck than us?"

"God I hope so," Lee said looking farther down the sea of trees.

A loud, masculine scream pierced the serenity of the forest's calm atmosphere. Lee's head snapped to the direction of the disturbance, "Do you think that's Kenny?" Mark asked clenching the rifle.

Lee swallowed the lump forming in his throat, "I don't know, let's go check it out," Lee took of in a sprint tearing through the forest floor with Mark got on his heels.

"HELP ME!" the voice called again, it was closer this time.

"HELP M-" it was silenced this time.

Lee could tell it was definitely not Kenny's voice, it sounder younger and higher in pitch. Lee and Mark tracked the sound to a clearing where the pine trees clumped together.

"Shut up! Shut- Shut the fuck up! Do you want to draw the fuckin' walkers?" that, however, was Kenny's voice.

Kenny, now sporting a green shirt with long gray sleeves, looked to have been trying to calm someone down. That someone was taller than Kenny, lanky too. He wore a blue jacket with a white knit SMHS insignia on it and blue jeans. His blue eyes danced around worriedly until they landed on Lee and Mark, "Oh shit! Don't hurt us!"

Kenny turned around ready for combat, "What the hell is going on?" Lee asked relaxing his grip on the axe while looking around at the thick tree line circling them.

"I have no idea, I found this kid here crying wolf-"

"There were bandits after me, I swear to god! Two of them!" the boy shouted.

"Hey, man, lower your voice. Don't want to attract any walkers," Mark advised while mimicking Lee's actions.

"Look, if there are bandits, you have to tell us where they are," Lee said as calmly as possible to the boy of about eighteen who seemed to be in the midst of a mental and emotional breakdown.

"Okay- um- I- Okay! My friend and I, Travis, we were with our band teacher and he got his leg stuck in a bear trap. We tried to save him, we almost found a way to get him out until one of them shot Travis in the leg. I didn't know what to do! I just ran, I'm terrified!" the former high school student stammered nervously fidgeting with his digits.

"Okay.." Kenny trailed off.

"Ben," he piped up nervously whipping backwards to see if there was anything there.

"Okay, Ben, take us back to the traps. Do you think you can do that?" Kenny asked as calmly as possible as not to disturb Ben any further.

Ben licked his lips and shakily looked around once more, "What if they're still there?"

"We'll take care of them," Kenny said trying to assure Ben that he would be fine.

"Okay, okay I can show you," Ben said nodding quickly.

Ben turned and moved forward at a slow pace, Lee, Mark and Kenny followed the teenager through the forest. Lee wasn't sure what to expect, he only had to deal with a bandit once and that didn't end quite well for the bandit. Lee felt the weight of his revolver in its holster as it bounced against his thigh with every step.

Ben stopped, "They were up there," he said pointing to a clearing that was barely visible with the wild vegetation claiming its place in between the openings in the trees.

"Okay, you stay back, we'll go check it out," Kenny said gesturing with his head for Mark and Lee to follow.

As stealthily as possible they took cover each behind a tree, Kenny nodded at Mark who took point in the clearing. Lee flanked around to the other side of the clearing as Kenny was prepared to give Mark cover from the tree line.

"There's no one here," Mark decided flatly.

Kenny stood up from his crouch and lowered his weapon as did Lee with his axe. The three entered the heart of the clearing where a lone, bloodied bear trap lay. "It's fresh," Lee said observing the warm liquid that flowed slowly off of the bear trap's sharp iron teeth. The blood flowed steadily from the bear trap into the pool of blood on the forest floor.

Mark walked to the tree line slowly looking down, "Guys, check this out."

Lee walked over to Mark as Kenny said he was going to go get Ben. Lee looked down at what Mark was pointing at. The leaves had been ruffled around, just wide enough for a body, a trail of blood followed the small clearing into the tree line.

"Son of a bitch," Lee muttered.

"What do you think this means?" Mark asked backing up from the blood.

"I think those bandits took them," Lee said following the trail of blood with his eyes.

"Jesus," Mark trailed off scrunching his nose up in disgust.

Lee stood up and picked his axe up as he heard the crunching of leaves. Walkers emerged on one side of the clearing as did Kenny and Ben on the other side.

"Hey! We've gotta get!" Mark pulled Lee with him into a run.

Kenny led Ben and the rest of them through the seemingly endless forest away from the walkers. Lee's head spun, what kind of sick person would hunt down people? That must have been what that was, why else would they wait around that clearing with a bear trap? Lee's lungs began to burn as they reached the road. Of course, with the noise they made running through the forest Lilly was aiming her gun directly at them.

"Open the gate!" Kenny yelled putting his hands on his knees as he panted in exhaustion.

Ben was the last to pop out of the forest, he seemed to be the most out of breath. Lee doubted the boy was even in shape. Lilly slid off of the side of the RV and practically tore the gate open in anger as she spotted Ben.

"Lee, what the fuck?" she growled as Carley, Larry, Jacob, and Clementine shuffled in enjoins her.

Lee pushed the gate closed behind the four as Lilly shouted again, "Lee! Lee!"

"What?" Lee asked.

Clementine pushed past the crowd and asked, "Lee, are you alright?"

Lee gave a quick nod to her and noticed that for the fourth straight days he wasn't wearing her hat, "Lee, what the hell are you thinking? Why are you bringing new people in, again. This isn't a fucking shelter!"

Kenny glared at Lilly, "You want to call down for just a fucking second, princess?"

"Watch your fucking mouth!" Larry growled at Kenny.

"You just contradicted-" Jacob began before Lilly cut him off.

"No, I don't! In case you haven't noticed, we are not responsible for every survivor out there! Okay, we are not the military!" Lilly argued.

"Now come on, Lilly! He would have died if we left him out there!" Lee defended Ben who was frantically watching the heated argument by the tailgate of Kenny's truck.

"So what? That's his problem!" Larry yelled.

"Lilly, he's a living, breathing person just like all of us! We can't just abandon someone who needs help," Mark says finally speaking up.

Lilly whipped towards Mark, "The only reason you're here, and you to, Jacob," she spat the man's name out while jabbing a finger at him, "Is because Lee felt sorry for you."

"No! It's because he's trying to do the right thing, and that's better than you're doing right now. But if you want to fight over this, fine! But I'm not going to be a part of this," Mark said washing his hands of the argument, "Welcome to our humble abode, kid," he muttered to Ben.

Jacob walked next to Ben, "Come on, man. Let's just get you settled in," he urged pulling Ben along with him, "Come on, Clem."

Jacob, Ben, and Clementine walked away from the feud. "You know, I know you like to feel that you have power, but this isn't your own personal fucking dictatorship!" Kenny snarled closing in on Lilly.

Carley crossed her arms and shifted her wait onto one foot. Lee noticed she had started wearing that puffy purple vest he had given her last week, he probably would have smiled at the thought if he wasn't in the middle of the cage match between Kenny and Lilly. "Now you're being entirely too dramatic, Kenny. Everything always ends up in some sort of power struggle between you two and I'm not going to be a part of that again!" Carley walked off to go check on Ben.

Lilly scoffed rolling her eyes, "I didn't ask to lead this group-"

"And no one asked for you to!" Kenny cut in.

"Everyone was fine with it until we started running low on food and all of a sudden I'm a goddamned Nazi!" Lilly snapped.

"Look, Lilly, I get that you're in charge of our schedules and food distribution but you are not in charge of our lives," Lee said shaking his head.

Kenny looked at Lee quickly and then turned on Lilly, "You weren't there, Lilly. We made our choice, end of discussion," he huffed and stalked off behind the RV.

"I don't see any of you making the hard decisions around here, my girl has more balls than any of you useless fucks combined!" Larry growled crossing his arms and curling his lips into a frown.

Lilly put a hand on Larry's arm, "Dad, it's okay. Why don't you go help Mark repair the fence?"

Larry scowled at Lee who shot daggers at the older man before walking away swearing under his breath. "If you and Kenny could pull your heads out of your asses for five seconds you could see that I make these decisions to protect your families!"

"Fine, whatever," Lee said pushing past Lilly and walking over to Clementine.

Mark had the idea to give one of the spare pieces of plywood the group had to the kids so they could draw outside or play board games on it instead of in the rooms. Clementine was sitting down coloring in a flower she drew, her radio was sitting in the asphalt next to her.

Lee tapped the right side of her shoulder and kneeled down to her left, she looked to her right and was confused when she saw no one there. She then whipped to her right, "Gotcha," Lee smirked. Clementine roles her eyes as a small smile formed on her face.

"So where's your hat, Clem?" Lee asked rubbing the back of his head.

Clementine shook her head, "I don't know, I can't find it anywhere," she lowered her head obviously disheartened by the event.

Lee put a finger under her chin and gently lifted it up so his eyes would meet hers, "Hey, it's okay. I'll help you look, where did you have it last?" Lee asked.

Before Clementine could respond Lee noticed Carley smiling at him before turning to her right and continuing her conversation with Katjaa, "It was in my room just a few days ago, but one day I woke up and it wasn't there."

Lee pursed his lips in thought looking up at the clouds and then snapped his fingers, "Have you checked under the beds?" Lee asked.

Clementine shook her head, "No, I haven't thought to."

Lee grinned and rubbed her arm, "Well there you go, it might be there."

"I hope so-"

"Hold it right fucking there!" Lee could hear Lilly yell.

Se pushed the barrel of her weapon through the breaks in the barb wire and sheet metal fencing, "Not another step."

Lee pushed himself to his feet quickly walking over to Lilly's side. "Hey, we just wanted to borrow some gas! If you have any, I mean!" A man with slicked back black hair said nervously laughing over his words.

"Don't you even dare try anything!" Larry yelled over the fence.

"Oh," he laughed nervously again and shifted his grip on his gas can, "We know you guys have the upper hand!"

The man's friend who wore a blue shirt and had an awkward look on his face said, "My brother and I, w-we just wanted to know if ya'll could help us out is all."

"Why do you need gas?" Carley asked who was mimicking Lilly's position in holding her pistol through the fence.

"Well, our home is fortified by electric fences- they need gas to run. Look, maybe we can trade?" the man in the shirt and parted black hair asked with a nervous chuckle.

"What would we want of yours?" Lilly asked brushing her finger against the trigger.

"You guys must need food, right? Well we've got a dairy back home," the blue shirt man said.

"Yeah, if y'all would just lower your guns we could take you there, get you a nice, hot meal. Maybe talk about a trade? Maybe even get you guys settled in there, we've plenty of room," the man with slicked back hair offered.

Lilly turned around and looked at Lee and Bud who was just walking up to them, "Lee, maybe you and Bud should see if this is all legit?"

Lee nodded and yelled back to the two men, "Fine! We'll give you some gas in exchange for food to take home; we can talk about a trade after."

Carley turned around, "I'm coming with you guys," she paused, "To guard your back, I mean."

The man with slicked back hair shook the red gas can and grinned, "That sounds fair to me, a few gallons should power those generators for a while."

**AN:**

**Hello once again ladies and gents! I expected to have this chapter up yesterday but, unfortunately for me, I felt like death all day yesterday. I was just entirely too sick to finish the chapter up yesterday but at least I got it out today! And this chapter, to me, seems like the weakest in the entire story mainly because I had to follow the general guideline of the beginning of the episode. But don't worry, I have the rest of this episode to do whatever and however I please. Thank you guys so much for the support and I'll see you all in the next chapter!**


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